rust, sleep and cookies

here is a picture of the view around our house. yes, it's true that we have beautiful palm trees waving in the wind and a sparkling pond nearby, but i think what strikes most people the first time they visit is all of the CRAP that is laying around this area! across the pond from us live old mr & mrs t. they are wonderful people. mrs. t loves to peek at tristan when we go for walks and she made him a noah's ark quilt. mr t. is a little hard of hearing, but he's always in the mood to chat and has even let me reel in the fish on his line once! the thing is, mr. t has an absolute passion for junk. every saturday he is up early and goes to every garage sale he can find. he has collected so many things over the years, and when he is done with them, well....they stay where he left them. which is all over the beautful hills that surround the pond. there are probably no less than 10 different vehicles abandoned on the property. from the window where i'm sitting i also see a rusted dump truck and various other bits of machinery. the funny thing is, after living here for nearly 2 years, i don't even notice these things anymore. it's as if my eye skims over them and just admires the incredible blue of the sky and the way the sun sparkles off of the water.

well, last post i didn't mention my son's sleeping habits, so i feel that this post i can have another rant: i think i jinxed myself yesterday by posting on his picture blog that his crying for no reason seems to have stopped. oops. yesterday afternoon and evening were NOT fun. i find that for his first nap of the day, he goes down like a dream. second nap (usually around noon) not so easy. third nap, absolutely NO chance. right now he's down for his second nap after crying for an hour and a half (no, i didn't let him cry it out for an hour and a half; i picked him up and sang to him and put his paci back in about a million times and every time he'd fall asleep, 5 minutes later he'd be crying again) he has been sleeping for 45 min. and it's time right now for another feeding. here's where i'm torn...to wake, or not to wake? i'm not asking for advice, since i'm pretty sure half of you would say one thing and half would say another. so i'm going to compromise and wake him up after another 30 min. anyhow, so last night he didn't take any naps from 1:00 onwards. by 8pm i had had it and thankfully i have an absolutely wonderful husband who told me to turn off the baby monitor in our room, put my earplugs in and go to sleep. he stayed up with a crying baby until 10:30, even though he has to get up for work at 5am. seriously, i married the Right Man! i feel sort of bad complaining about tristan's nap issues, since he slept straight through till 5.30 this morning and has been sleeping VERY well at night, but obviously i don't feel bad enough NOT to rant. and so i am.



one thing that i've found helps when i feel so all alone is the discovery that not everyone else has an easy baby. this morning i read kelly's archives to when taeya was tristan's age and found that she too was having nap issues and sleeping sporadically at night. my friend sara just called and told me that her son rarely slept more than 30 minutes at a time during the day for the first 9 months. and then, of course there is dear denise who had 3 colicky babies. it's sort off odd that i derive comfort from other's angst. but it's made me see that it really doesn't last forever, that there is hope after all...this too shall pass.



in between putting tristan's pacifier in and shushing him back to sleep, i made a batch of delicious peanut butter cookies (thanks, lovella for the recipe). it called for trail mix to add to the batter, but since i don't have any on hand, i'm going to drizzle melted chocolate on top of them. mmmm... i was gonna take a picture, but lovella's are much prettier to look at. i'm not all fancy with putting links in my posts, so you'll have to click on it yourself ;)

4 more days till my parents arrive!! and jennifer, i understand that you are enjoying your high dosage of vitamin D, and have no patience for dial up, but i really miss your posts. oh yes, and while i'm shouting out, a great bit CONGRATULATIONS to my best bud darla who just got a job as a student nurse. (for those of you crazy enough not to read her blog, that is)

have a super weekend, everyone.