Growing Paines { 5 }: Snow, Smiles and Sleep

Winter pulled into town this week, about a month ahead of schedule. It began on Sunday with a pretty but light snowfall that didn't accumulate to much. The kids enjoyed watching the snow fall, and Allie even seemed enchanted by it. When we got home from church, she stayed outside and wandered around the yard in her dress clothes with a big smile, gazing at the falling snowflakes.

It was all harmless until the phone rang at 5:09am on Monday morning. The school district wanted to alert us of a two-hour delay. So Silas had a few extra hours here in the morning before he headed off to school. Not a big deal...

When the phone rang at 5:09am on Tuesday morning, waking us up with yet another alert, it was quite a surprise––school closed! It hadn't even snowed yet; a storm was expected. At least it did end up accumulating about 4-5 inches, so it was worth closing school. But it caught me off guard. I admit, since Rowan came, I have not been keeping up with the news, and am only vaguely aware of the weather forecast. But I've learned my lesson...I will be checking the weather report faithfully for the rest of the winter!

The snow storm was particularly exciting for the kids, and they were anxious to get outside and play. It took approximately 45 minutes to get all their snow gear on, with lots of tugging and pulling and impatient children and a frustrated mommy...perhaps other parents can relate?

So out they went mid-morning, while it was still snowing, unable to contain their excitement. Allie came back about 10 minutes later, very cold, her excitement extinguished by the chilly temperature. She told me she didn't like the noise the snow made when she stepped on it.

Silas managed to find a mud puddle in the back field, and decided to stand it in for 5 minutes. I convinced him to come back to the yard, and he played a little longer, but also came in far too soon considering all the work it took to get him ready for snow play.

Anyway, besides dealing with snow, we've been busy getting ready for Christmas. Last weekend we decorated the tree, Nate made pizzelles with Rowan in the front carrier (quite a humorous sight), and he and I have been trying finish our online shopping (we get very excited when the UPS truck pulls up). Rowan has started smiling in the last two weeks, and this week it's been a little more predictable. Now we are preoccupied with getting him to smile...once you know it's possible, it's hard not to keep trying every time he looks our way. We're cooing and smiling and giggling and making silly faces and funny noises...and every once in a while he smiles. But it's good. More of a return than we got in the first 6 weeks.

We also had a breakthrough with Rowan's sleep, thanks to a program developed by "Moms on Call". I made a few seemingly minor changes to our routine, as the MOC suggest, and the very first night he slept from 9:15pm-2:30am, when I fed him, and then slept until 6:30am! A huge improvement! And all that changed was that I gave him a bath at 8:30, fed him at 9pm, and swaddled him. I never would have imagined it would work so well. Honestly, I think that it was a gift from God. He intervened, and Rowan slept. Yea!