Kyle spent nearly every spare moment he had this last week focused on researching and writing some software for a project on face detection (for photos). He took off Thursday to work on it, spent most of Friday, Saturday and took off half of Monday to complete it. Saturday night he stayed up until 4 am working on it, and he stayed up until 3 am on Monday night completing it. Now that it is finished, he is relieved a bit, except that he has another homework assignment due tomorrow and two finals next week. I just can't imagine how hard it is to sit in front of a computer screen for 10 hours a day only to come home and spend more time in front of one doing homework. We are sure going to celebrate hard come December, when he graduates with his MS in Electrical Engineering.
In the meantime, Ethan has seemed very much his age. Some days we wonder if he is OCD, (though maybe all two-year olds are that way). He is a great sleeper, but it can be a challenge to get him to bed. Not that he is unwilling, he just takes FOREVER to get settled. He isn't so bad at naptime, but it takes us an hour every night from his bath to lights out. He tries everything he can to stall and he has to do everything himself. He has to turn on his music, read the books himself, turn off the light, drive each of his favorite cars across the house and into his bed, one at a time. One in particular has to sleep in the tattered box it came in and the box has to be closed just right. We've tried everything we can think of to speed up the process. We've hid his precious car box, tried to sneak cars into bed without him seeing, and try to read the book with him. He won't stand for it and has to put everything back to it was and do it HIMSELF. It is cute though that he turns his cars on their backs so they can sleep. If, when we finally get him into bed, he remembers that one of his cars and/or stuffed animals is missing, we have to search the house to find it. Will this ever get easier?! If anyone has any suggestions we'd love to hear them.
Brooklyn is getting really good at sitting up by herself (despite Ethan always trying to push her over). She loves the new freedom she is getting and how she is also able to scoot around a bit. I wish I had a picture of her sitting to share. Here is a picture of her doing another thing she loves: eating (that's my girl!) with a little help from Ethan.
Sunday was not our best day in the Morrey household. It definitely seemed to be one of those "should have stayed in bed" days. Being that Kyle was up until 4 am working on his project put us a bit behind, not to mention that Brooklyn kept waking up during the night (she normally sleeps all night). I am in the RS Presidency in my ward and therefore have to sit in the front facing everyone. I walked in a little late and Brooklyn was a bit fussy most of the time. I tried many things to calm her. After standing in the corner didn't work I decided to take her out. I grabbed my overstuffed diaper bag (we always have to bring a whole arsenal of toys for Ethan to get through Sacrament Meeting) I started out toward the door. I didn't have a good grip of my bag and lost it spilling diapers and various items all over the floor in front of the teacher and everyone during a very spiritual part of the lesson. To make matters worse, somehow my shoe got stuck on the handle of the bag. With the help of a fellow RS Sister my foot was freed, items were retrieved, and I got out of there.Fortunately we got through Sacrament Meeting without too much trouble. It was getting to the car that really turned us red. Ethan refuses to hold our hands most of the time in parking lots so we often have to carry him or keep him close as best we can. Sundays are hard because our hands are always full of binders and manuals and the car seat, etc. He was being a bit rebellious in the parking lot not wanting to walk with us to the car. He darted out in front of some (slowly approaching) vans so Kyle stuck his leg out to block him. Just then Ethan tripped and it looked like Kyle kicked him. A lady in a passing van had her hand held to her face in shock. We both tried to drag our screaming child out of the way, finally realizing that not only were his pants suddenly around his knees, but his diaper was too, exposing himself to all of our neighbors at once. We started laughing so hard (along with everyone around) that we struggled getting the matter resolved quickly enough. What a reputation we must be getting just a week after Ethan's "diaper hat" incident last week. Parenthood is grand!!
And just for fun:
The other day Ethan thought he would try to be like mom and get some "Ethan milk" from his belly button. I couldn't resist to try to get a picture of it. Silly boy!
Lastly, we saw the movie "Marley and Me" this weekend and highly recommend it. We don't have a dog, but really related to this movie, especially after this week.
4 comments:
Oh my goodness... aren't Sundays just the worst sometimes?! Ethan's bedtime routine must be exhausting. I'm amazed you still give him a bath every day. That's a lot of work in itself. When Nolan stalls too long we just say no, close the door, and turn off the light. He gets a bit upset but he knows better the next night. It's tough... what works with one kiddo doesn't always work with another. I hope you all survive the next homework assignment and upcoming tests. That's no fun!
Wow, what a week! Sunday sounds like it was an adventure to say the least. One of those stories that you will tell your kids years and years from now, embarrassing them and reminding you of the "good old days"!
Oh the challenges of a two year old! I certainly can relate, I never realized how independent a two year old could be until I had one (or how maddening they could be). Good luck! You have such cute kids!
Wow, what a week for you! Crazy that Brooklyn's already old enough to sit up. With the bedtime thing, you could set a timer with the bath. Then with the "driving the cars to bed thing" (cute that he has to turn them over to sleep) if it were us/Jackson, we'd tell him to pick 2 of the cars to drive himself, and that we'd do the rest. If he was mad about that (and he would be at first) we'd tell him that he can either drive 0 or 2 of the cars. With both instances the choice is still up to him. We have to do the "0 or 2" thing a lot with him (with whatever appropriate numbers) and it works well with him, though of course that doesn't mean it will work with Ethan. Jackson just loves to have the control (or feel like he has the control- hehe) so we play off of that with him. Just be firm and consistent, and once he realizes that you're serious about it it should get a lot better. I'm sure Ethan will eventually want you to read stories to him again, so I'd just wait for that one to phase out. Jackson has days like that, too. Good luck! :)
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