Owl or Lark?

I have a love affair with coffee that spans several years. Ever since I can remember, my dad had to have a cup of coffee every morning. It was also a treat when he would pick up a gallon of coffee flavored Breyers ice cream (Mom, ever the health nut, often forbade ice cream in the house). So, the taste and smell of coffee has been something that has captured my senses for some time. But it wasn't until I was in college that it became a morning necessity for me.

Never more than a cupful, I began to need it's rousing effects within 15 minutes of waking. I sometimes worried about this morning routine because I knew about the dehydrating effects of coffee/caffeine on the vocal folds (not good for singers). But, I figured it was alright if I just drank loads of water, which I have always done as a singer anyway.

Not only does the taste of coffee rank high on my list of all time wonderful flavors, but it has also made mornings something I can handle. You see, for the longest time getting out of bed has been difficult and (before coffee) I would need a good hour before I felt like a normal person. When I married Rodney, I began to see this as a moral dillema because he would pop out of bed every morning well before 8 am (on a weekend) and I began to feel that my desire to sleep in (past 8 am) was seen as lazy (even though he would never say this). It wasn't until I began reading Ferber to help Will's sleep that I understood our differnces and exactly why I "needed" coffee in the morning.

Dr. Ferber separates us into two groups: owls and larks. Here's what he says about owls: "[these] are people who get energized at night. Their second wind is strong, and the late night is often the most pleasant time of their whole day. Owls feel most alert at that time; they can think clearly, study effectively, and play well. Staying up late is easy for them. But owls have a problem in the morning: waking up and starting the day, even after a full night's sleep, is painful and difficult, like climbing out of a deep hole (YES!!!). Owls don't like to get up, and they avoid early-morning activities whevever they can." This is definately me.

And here's Rodney: "For larks, the second wind is less forceful. As night falls, larks feel as if they are sliding into the same deep hole that owls wake up from each morning. Finding it unpleasant to stay up late, larks may pass up evening activities or leave them early. But they wake up without any trouble early in the morning, usually feeling great. They want to get right up and start doing things. For larks, morning is the best time of day and evening is the worst."

I can't tell you how many times Rodney has put on a pot of coffee at night just to remain awake for evening activities.

Dr. Ferber goes on to explain that not everyone necessarily falls into either of these categories. I often marvel at my mother-in-law's ability to stay up late AND get up early without (seemingly) difficulties.

So, there you have it. I am an owl and Rodney is a lark. This explains so much. Our families even fit nicely into these two categories, with little variation. So, is one better than the other? What do you think? Are you an owl or a lark by nature?

Here's a picture that I took of Rodney this past week. The exact time I took it was 8:30 pm. He went on to sleep just like this until 11:30 pm, when I came in to bed and I woke him and told him to get ready for bed. If I hadn't done that he would have slept this way all night. I can't tell you how many times this has happened since we've been married.

Cardboard's Not the Same as a Sled

I am woefully behind in getting these pictures (and video) posted. When last week's snow storm gave Rodney a snow day he decided that he wanted to do what he's done the past 2 or 3 snow days: go sledding at Art Hill in Forest Park. I've done this with him on one of the occassions, and it is a blast. With Will I knew it would be a modified sledding experience, and I was really excited about "frolicking" with him in the new fallen snow. On our way to Forest Park we stopped by Target to by a sled and they were all sold out. Then, we tried Walmart and when Rodney sadly found none there either, he decided to purchase a folded up cardboard box he saw (for $3.50) on his way out of the store. Here's a video followed by photos showing you how much fun we had (sadly, the cardboard box did not deliver but we had fun anyway).

Mommy and Me

Daddy and Me

Cardboard's Not the Same

Successful Sledders

Trying

Snow Bunny

Art Hill

I always love reading Marisa's posts when she does her product reviews, with the most recent being about informative books. I guess I'd like to do something similar with this post and write about a few things that have made me a better parent (or just stuff I REALLY like).

Book: Love You Forever by Robert Munsch and Sheila McGraw. If you've never read this children's book before you must do so. The first time I heard about it was when I was in jr. high or high school (I think it was written in the '80s). My friend's mom would talk about it, but I didn't read it myself until last year when I got it as a shower gift. It honestly makes me cry EVERY time I read it. It's about a mother who rocks and sings her baby boy to sleep every night and even creeps into his room as a grown man to sing to him. The book ends with the grown man holding his aging mother and singing to her. It's so touching. The woman who gave it to me said that she made up her own melody to go with the words to the lullaby and that she knew of groups of mothers that would get together and share their melodies to the well-loved words: "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be." Rodney's melody even differs from mine.


CD: Marlo Thomas and Friends: Free To Be You and Me. Laura bought this for Maddie when she was born and then appropriately bought it for me and Will as part of his baptism gift. It was produced in 1972 and features such names as Allen Alda (from M*A*S*H), Harry Belefonte, Mel Brooks, Carol Channing, Shirley Jones, and Dianna Ross. Marlo Thomas (don't know who she is outside of this recording) explains about wanting to read a bedtime story to her niece and getting saddened by the nature of her books. Saying that not only did the books put her to sleep at night, but they "put her mind to sleep" as well. She began looking through stores and found lots of books that "charmingly dictated who and what [boys and girls] must be, colorfully directing new minds away from their own uniqueness." Alternating between songs, stories and poems, and even comedic sketches, it breaks down typical gender stereotypes. Some titles are Parents are People, It's All Right to Cry, William's Doll, and When We Grow Up. One of my favorites it a comedic sketch featuring Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks called Boy Meets Girl. In the sketch two babies just born try to decide whether or not they are a boy or a girl. It's so cute and hilarious. If you can get past the campy 1970s feel, it has a lot to offer. I think Stanford from Sex in The City even references it as a plea for gay people.


The Ultimate Diaper Bag by Pottery Barn Kids. Right after Will was born I unwisely bought a very cute but cheap diaper bag that ended up falling apart on me a few weeks ago. Coveting such beautiful bags as Petunia Picklebottom but knowing I couldn't afford them, I found this bag in the mall and decided it was a great middle-of-the-road (price-wise) choice. Marisa later told me that it got good reviews from her sources. The size is perfect- not too big and not too small- and it's got lots of great compartments. There are two insulated bottle holders on the outside of the bag and two magnets that keep the flap closed, so no messing with zippers. The material is also washable and very sturdy. I also love the shoulder grip on the strap.


Peanut Shell Sling. One of the best investments I've made as far as baby gear goes. It's use has been invaluable, lasting much longer than the bjorn (he's too big for that now, but we loved that too when he was smaller). The great thing about the sling is that you just put them in differently as they grow. It especially comes in handy when I have lots to carry to or from the car, allowing me to hold Will hands-free. It was also a lifesaver when I had to fly to Florida alone with Will.

A Little Down Time

Recently Will has stopped having consistent morning naps, even though some days he still gets a little sleepy/fussy around 10 or 11. Instead of pushing him to nap when he doesn't seem to want one, I've decided to give him some "down time" in his crib. I put him in there with his blankie and turn the mobile on and he just chills. I just went in to check on him because he was babbling fussily, and when I got in there I saw that his mobile had turned off (it goes 15 min. at a time). Upon turning it on again he got the silliest little grin on his face and proceeded to stare at it adoringly. Cute!

Lately I have been trying to get Will to laugh because: #1. He doesn't do it often and #2. It makes my heart melt. The other night Rodney had him on his lap on the couch right before bed and had him giggling away. I tried to capture it on film and he stopped as soon as he saw the camera (of course). Then we unsucessfully tried to get a shot of his new teeth (sorry it's so dark):




I don't know why, but I LOVE taking pictures of Will while he sleeps. Maybe it's that vulnerable state that sleep induces. Whatever it is, I think it's so much fun to sneek into his room during his naps and snap a few shots (like the butt-sleeping shots from the other day). Yesterday I went in to wake him (crazy I know) because it was a late nap that had lasted a little too long. Here's the picture I took:

I think what got me the most were his hands: they're starting to look like boy hands instead of baby hands. I was a little disappointed after I took this shot, because as soon as the flash went off, he woke up (I quickly ducked down to avoid being seen because I wanted to keep this moment suspended in time). After he discovered me hiding, he shimmied over and gave me these faces through the crib slats:

I love it when he wakes from a nap happy.

Favorite Sleeping Position

Mine is on my back. Well, atleast I start out that way and then I find myself on my side by morning. Falling asleep on my side was never very easy for me when I was pregnant. Rodney sleeps a lot on his stomach (he'd really have a hard time being pregnant! hee hee). Ever since we did sleep training with Will, he rolls over on his right side as we put him down in his crib and eventually makes his way onto his tummy in the night. The past two nights I've gone in to check on him before I go to bed and have caught him in this position:



It's kinda hard to see, but his butt is sticking straight up in the air. The best angle for this picture would have been from the side, but the crib slats prevented that so we have two aerial views. It's pretty cute.

Sleep has definately turned into something I can now expect to get. Just four months ago I would dream of such luxury! Now we do our routine, lay him in the crib at 8:30 and can pretty much expect not to hear from him until anywhere between 6-7 am. Wow.

On to to other things. One of the most interesting developmental milestones thus far for Will has been his newfound ability to crawl. Here's a video:


With this new freedom, he has taken to explore our home. At first, whenever we put him down, he would shimmy over to the wall and play with the baseboards (which he still does and you saw him do a little bit in the video above). But more recently I've found him playing with the doorstop behind the door in his room and then eventually in the corner behind the door. A few times he's yelped for help from this spot because he can't back his way out! He's also taken to crawling to any cord he sees so he can put it in his mouth. Scary. He also likes to crawl over to the fireplace grate and scratch it with his little fingers. I used to just put a fortress of couch pillows around it, but now he just climbs right over them to play with it. My sister used to have this huge connectable plastic gate thing in her living room where Mia would play without fear of getting into things. I used to think it was a little "control freaky" of my sister. Now, I completely understand why she did this and just might copy her clever idea. What child wouldn't love a giant play pen anyway?

As usual I will close with some photos. Some of Will, Che, and some of our new office/music room. I'm not sure why we didn't do this before as we weren't really using the sunroom for anything purposeful.

Happy Holidays

Once again, our holiday vacation produced within me a strong desire to do absolutely NOTHING. Including blogging. I of course had tons of time and chose to either sleep, read, do a puzzle (with the rest of the Malone family), play with Will and Yuri and do a tiny bit of exercise. It was a wonderfully restful trip. Will and Yuri were both feeling under the weather and by New Years Day we decided to take Will in to the emergency room. The ER doctor told us it was bronchiolitis, but that his oxygen levels were very good (the main cause of concern). He told us that there isn't really any medication and that we just had to wait it out. So, we've been wiping snotty noses and listening to deep-chested coughs for a couple of weeks now. We were concerned about his discomfort with sleeping, so we did all the no-nos and he was up every 3-4 hours for the duration of our trip. He started showing signs of improving by the time we returned from Kansas and it took one night of "following the rules" and he was back on schedule. Also, VERY much more content during the day. Apparently, continuous sleep through the night is good for not only us, but Will too!

Here are some updates: Will's basically crawling, although not very deliberately. He's getting one tiny tooth on the top right and it looks like maybe his top two front teeth are trying to push through. Crazy! He babbles a lot too, mostly sticking with "da da da da." I'm sad to say that perhaps Rodney will be the first to be verbally acknowledged by our child. Sniff, sniff. It's so cute though, I don't really care what he's says first. We also graduated from the newborn/infant tub (on top of the kitchen sink) to the bathtub. One of us gets in there with him and we splash and play after we've scrubbed. It's so much fun. Both lunch and dinner are served up in his high chair with breast feeding sessions mixed in between. It's both liberating and frightening to observe the gradual moving away from his sole dependence upon me for food (atleast when a bottle is not offered).

Here are some photos from Christmas:

A blurry living room

Baby's First Christmas

Can you guess what this is?

Happy Crawler
Christmas Sleeper

"Does this color match my eyes?"

Uncle B

Opening Zoo Train (thanks Gma & Gpa Malone!)

Cousins

My new favorite toys

6 months, That Wonderful Piney Smell, Romeo et Juliette, and Bach

This post will be as motley as its title.

Will turned 6 months on the 27th of November, and with that turning of age we have been harkened into a new world. A full-blown infant/here-comes-a-little-boy world.

Gone are: little baby animal-esque cries (I used to think it sounded a little like a yowling cat), a million poopy diapers a day, that distant newborn stare, the "can't you see I'm so friggen pissed off and can't you just know exactly what this cry means?" crying, and blob-like states (not to mention no sleeping).

Here are: almost crawling, 2 teeth, smiles when he see's me, sleeps for a reaaaally long time, food mostly on his bib/face/lap (I'll have to capture this for you, although I'm sure you're all too familiar with the scene), happy kicker and bouncy arm days.

Let me just say, I LOVE this age.


Here are his percentiles: weight 50th, length 75th, head 75th. He's catching up with himself.

On to "That Wonderful Piney Smell." This year Rodney told me that he wanted to get a fake tree so that we could start saving money at Christmas time. I told him that if we weren't going to get a real tree, I didn't want one. Not that I was really upset, mind you. I just find the idea of having a tree in your house a weird idea to begin with, not to mention a fake one (sorry to those who get fake ones- I recognize that it is a personal choice, as well as a lot easier). Anyway, I convinced him that cutting down our own tree would be a wonderful tradition to have with our kids, and I even found a great deal at Eckerts: $36 for any tree you cut down. So we got all bundled up, made the drive to Bellville and cut ourselves a beautiful tree (nicest one we've ever gotten). Now my house smells like pine. Another great reason to get a real one. Mmmmm.



So, ever since Carol decided that she thinks my voice is well suited for opera, she's been going on and on about these live broadcasts of the MET operas at various movie theaters around the St. Louis area (actually it's a nationwide campaign to get opera "out to the people"). Anyway, I've been totally interested in going, but the tickets are like 20 dollars. Well, during one of my lessons she tells me out of the blue that one of her students (who wishes to remain anonymous) is quite wealthy and wants to pay for me to go to these broadcasts. Wow. I'm not really sure what this means, but I am humbled by the gesture. So, yesterday was the first. Romeo et Juliette (French for Romeo, yadda yadda) by Gounod. After three hours of glorious singing and amazing theatrics, I left the Art Museum theater in a heightened state. It was otherworldy. I can't wait for the next one in Januaary, Hanzel and Gretel. I'm told it's even better.

Tonight we had a brutal Bach rehearsal for tomorrow night's 1st of two Candlelight performances. These are always bittersweet for me because I absolutely love singing at Powell Hall, but the rehearsals leading up to the concerts are always pretty difficult to endure. The orchestra sounded spectacular though, and tomorrow night should be amazing. 'Tis the season for hard work if you're a musician (or a snow shoveller).