Fully Alive…Ready to Smile

…recognize the true importance of a single moment in time, the instant when you are fully and completely alive!

June 4, 2007

My 5 Questions Interview

So Tara did the 5 questions interview from Andrea and I asked Tara to interview me. Here it goes…

1. If you had to move far away to a place like Australia, what is the one and only THING from your house that you would take? Oh, Tara, only one thing? Man! I guess I would buy most everything that I needed there, and if this move was forever I think I would put all my pictures on either a disc or external hard drive and bring that. The pictures are the one thing that I couldn’t replace. Pretty much everything else, sentimental as it might be could be replaced.

2. What is your favourite color and why? It depends what mood I’m in. Currently it’s red. Not and orangey red, but a deep, rich, passionate red. It’s warm and inviting. I would really like a red dress. Maybe once my jogging has paid off I’ll go spend some money on one.
3. If Jer was to describe you in one word, what would it be and why? Silly. If you’d ever seen how often he shakes his head at me you wouldn’t ask that question. Very often after I say or do something he does this head shake as if to say “I can’t believe you just said/did that!” Sometimes it’s accompanied by an eye-roll. That’s only when I’m being really, really silly!
4. If you were to win the lottery tomorrow, what would be the first thing you would buy? A holiday to Europe for as long as I felt like. That’s the only thing in my life right now that I truly long for but just cannot seem to get. My house is great and new (not that I couldn’t always build bigger and better and better since that’s what I do) and I’m content for now. Of course, clothing is always something I feel short of, but I’d be buying clothing whilst in Europe : ) We don’t lack for anything. God has provided and blessed us abundantly. Even if it’s not always everything we think we should have, we have everything we need. And that’s the most important thing.
5. When and how did you decide that it was time to start a family? (Not how you did IT!) Oh, you don’t want the juicy details? Okay, fine! When we got married we said we would wait two years to start our family. In August of 2002, while driving to Minaki for our summer holidays, I popped the question to Jer and I swear he almost hit the ditch. We had been married 1 year and 3 months when we had “the talk” which if you know your math is not 2 years like we talked about : ) We talked about it all that month and decided that we would like to HAVE a baby around our second anniversary rather than starting at 2 years. So 6 weeks after the decision was final we were pregnant with Ella! She was born 6 weeks after our anniversary and it was a decision I’ve never regretted! I’m glad we didn’t wait years. We were young, yes, I won’t dispute that fact, but I always wanted to be finished my family while still young so that I could have the energy for my kids (which wanes fast regardless of how old or young you are!). So there you have it. Now I’m 26 and deciding whether my family is complete with 2 or whether we’ll have more. I always said I wanted 4. I guess we’ll see about that. That’s twice as many as I have and that seems daunting (did you know according to an intelligence test I took I’m almost a genius in math?)
There you go!
Here are the rules to post on your entry:
1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.

Sleeping Beauty

Our little sleeping beauty has some sleeping issues. It’s been about 2 1/2 years since we started these issues. It involves a lot of bouncing in bed and a lot of singing. Let’s start from the beginning.

When Ella was about 18 months old she figured out how much fun it was to bounce in her crib. The mattress was bouncy and it was great. She also started singing around this time. It was mostly just the tune of song, but sung with her own jibberish (and the occasional word stuck in to make sure we knew which song it was). We noticed early on during these bouncing/singing episodes that she has incredible rhythm (I mean, Daddy is a drummer, after all!). So she would sing in time with her bouncing…(imagine a thunking noise with every syllable) Twin-kle twin-kle lit-tle star- How I won-der what you are…

For a while it was cute. Then it started getting a little annoying and finally, 2 1/2 years later, it is driving us to the point of insanity. It has become a habit for her. She does it in her sleep. She’ll do it at 3:00 a.m., she’ll do it at 6:00 a.m., she’ll go for long periods of time if we don’t drag our tired butts out of bed to lay her back down and tell her to go back to sleep.

Then there’s the fun little fact that her Papa made her a 4-poster bed and every time she bounces it thunks the wall (THUNK-THUNK-THUNK-THUNK…aaaaahhhhhhh!!!). In fact, the thunking noise was so loud that our neighbors can actually hear it in their house. They thought that there was some jerk living on our block that listens to music with really loud bass at all hours of the night…a couple times a night. It was even pondered whether Jer and I were…um…you know…every night…2 or 3 times…ya. What an impression we’ve given them : ) I think Tara was worried that she’d have to live up to some crazy standard, LOL! Anyway, one night us and Chris and Tara were sitting outside by the fire when we heard this peculiar thunking noise coming from somewhere. Jer listened closely and he’s the one that figured it out. We were hearing Ella bouncing in her bed. Chris listens and says “that’s the noise I hear all the time!” Crazy! My child isn’t only interfering with our sleep, but our neighbors as well. Since then I’ve moved her bed away from the wall. We’ve noticed that she’ll stop in mid bounce and this is how she sleeps. In the perfect position for her to start bouncing at the slightest whim.
In an effort to stop the insanity, I also took away her naps recently. Well let me tell you…that has been rough. She was still a really good napper. Now, we have a very grumpy, disobedient, defiant, screaming, temper-tantrum throwing, “what-kind-of-parents-does-that-kid-have” kind of little girl. It’s SO frustrating. She’s not bouncing as much during the night, but I’m not so sure the trade-off was any better! I think I’m more tired now than when I was getting up 2 times a night to tell her to go back to sleep. During the last week, every night she falls asleep while reading her books during her “quiet time.” She’s so exhausted from not napping and still getting up at 7:00 a.m. to sing that she doesn’t stay awake longer than 10 minutes after she gets in bed. This, after waging war with us about how “NOT TIRED” she is. Right! This was her tonight. So peaceful. Such a princess. Hard to be mad or upset about the rest of it. I just hope she outgrows it soon. Her little sister has been sleeping 13 hours through the night for over a year already, but I still get up with my almost 4 year old. Not fair. Oh, well…C’est La Vie!