Hello world? How have you been? Me? Still not getting much sleep, but thanks for asking. Well, its like this. Little Man still hasn't gotten his top tooth. Its just sitting there, causing him pain and annoying the hell out of DW and I. He has taken to moaning at night. He doesn't wake up exactly, he just moans. DW is convinced he has a camera in our room and watches for her eyes to finally flutter shut before he moans again. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have to have the baby monitor on all night. But he isn't old enough to not actively monitor and so we put up with it.

I don't have much trouble falling asleep. If I put my head against something soft, I can switch off in seconds. Its like turning off a light. Unfortunately, I'm like a sound and movement activated light. The instant I hear something or someone moves, I'm awake again. DW has the reverse problem. She takes much longer to fall asleep and needs to have had a period of quiet before she can drop off. Of course, once she does drop off, she is like a hibernating bear. The problem is, with Little Man moaning and my occasionally snoring (DW says its like sleeping next to roadworks) it can be hard for DW to get to sleep.

And so we have the situation where Little Man moans, then stops, I drop off to sleep and start jackhammering, DW hits me to stop my snoring, I roll over and start snoring again, DW hits me, Little Man moans, DW hits me, I offer to get up and look after Little Man until she falls asleep, DW says no, Little Man moans, I fall asleep and start snoring, DW hits me, I get up and turn off the baby monitor and go out to the lounge, DW falls alseep despite Little Man still moaning, because now only I can hear him, I walk around for a couple of hours, Little Man stops moaning and goes to sleep properly, I get back into bed, DW doesn't stir because she is like a hibernating bear, I roll over and start snoring, DW doesn't hit me because she can't hear me, Little Man starts moaning again, I wake up, I get up, Little Man stops moaning, I get back into bed and start snoring before I've actually gone to sleep, Little Man moans and I lie there deciding whether or not to wake DW. Did I mention she is like a hibernating bear? Would you want to wake up a hibernating bear?

So we have a little dilemna.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this is that Princess sleeps through the whole thing. However, she has begun to disturb us in other, more disturbing ways. A couple of days ago, I heard her singing, "Ooooh baby, I need your lovin'." She also decided that wearing a peaked cap backwards is "roolly coooool!" She is only four. And for some reason, when she is playing, some of her toys have an American accent. One of DW's friends from Mum's Group braided Princess' hair and she loved it so much, she insisted on wearing it to bed. The next morning, when DW undid the braid, Princess announced she now had "curly wurly Princess hair." DW has now decided to learn how to braid hair.

We are just about to hit a new milestone. Little Man is almost one. And so, we must celebrate this event with enthusiasm and cheer as would parents who get a normal amount of sleep. We have to prepare everything and invite lots of people and he will have no idea what the hell is going on, but he knows how to keep us awake at night, so he'll just do that. And he can't be reasoned with. I think he knows what "No!" means. Most words, he will just stare at you with a puzzled look on his face. If you say "No!" his look changes to one of "I don't have to even care what that word means."

Princess can be negotiated with. She understands consequence and makes a decision about how important certain consequences are. She also understands the true scope of a threat. For instance, she knows that if she is naughty and has her dessert privilege revoked, she needs a certain amount of time to win it back. Hence the effectiveness of such a threat is determined by its temporal proximity to the enacting of the threat. Basically, its pointless threatening her dessert before 5pm, and she knows it. Even more frustrating is when she comes out first thing in the morning and announces that she is going to be good today. And she is. She is a perfect little angel the whole day. The next day no such proclaimation is made and she sets about making up for the previous day.

If only Little Man would cut this damn tooth already!

Ciao!

Thought for the Day: I hate management meetings. I hate hayfever. Having them at the same time...