It happened again. At 12:30 last night the screaming began and wasn’t subsiding. This suuuuuxxxx!!! I laid down on the couch with him and we both fell asleep for an hour. At 1:30 I gently scoop his little asleep ass up and begin to lower him in to the crib and as soon as his head hits the pillow…Aaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh! I said fuck it and brought him into bed with me. Will I ever get a full night sleep again? Will Fritz sleep in our bed until he is a teenager? Will I be forced to let him scream himself back to sleep for hours on end? Will he lose his voice if I do? Are you there god? It’s me Samantha. Im not religious but hell, just thought I’d ask.

So, Fritz is 18 months old. We got the kid sleeping through the night by 3 months old. We do not do the family bed thing. We are all better off in our own beds. For the last couple nights he has been waking up screaming in the middle of the night. Now, when you a parent there are routine things you do when this happens. Here is what we do: 1. Wait for him to stop crying and go back to sleep on his own 2. If its been over 15 min go in and check out the situation 3. Bring him into out room and let him chill between us until he goes back to sleep. The times he has woken up in the past week none of this had worked. If there is nothing you can do get your kid to go back to sleep in this situation you feel absolutely helpless. It’s the worst having a wide awake toddler at 4 am. I tried milk and Tylenol. The only thing that worked was laying beside him on his little couch in his room. Each morning when he woke up he was totally fine. Not sick. Nothing. Playing like normal. After day 3 of this I went ahead and looked up toddler not sleeping through the night. This answer was extremely helpful. I found out that regardless if your toddler was sleeping normally they are now very aware of their surroundings and wake up with anxiety of being away from the parent or are down right scared. Poor munch munch. So the instructions are to calm them and maybe give a security animal or something. Stick to the routine every night and by all means DON’T get up and play with them or watch TV (I have done this on maybe 2 occasions). I’ve been away for the past couple days and just returned last night. Thing seem to have gone smoothly while I was gone so maybe he’s over it??? If I could only be so lucky. I’ll take it night by night and hope for the best.

Milestone people! Fritz ate his first bowl of cereal on his own this morning. You know what this means? More me time. Feeding a kid is a drag. It’s boring and it takes forever. When they can feed themselves it means they are occupied and aren’t begging for your attention. One point for mommy. So this morning I got to pleasantly sip my coffee and mess around on the internet. Im happy, Im excited, this is a major step. Thank god it’s a good morning because last night was a whole different story. Stay tuned…

Someone mentioned that I should discuss losing the baby weight. Sure. The pictures above were taken nearly a year apart. First off I gained a shit ton of weight when I was preg. I think it was close to 60 lbs. Uh, yea. Anyway after baby I had my work cut out for me. A few things, I am short, I hate exercise (surprise), and I love food. You feel me? Well I carried a bit of the weight around for about a year then this past February I was looking at summer coming and decided I had to do something, something drastic. I had about 15 lbs I needed to take off. I threw myself into spinning. Spinning is hell but it works! You go into the class for 45 min of pure agony and thats it! No need to stick around the gym for anything else. You don’t have to think about anything, just drag your ass into that class 3 times a week for a couple months and voila! Thats it. Plain and simple. I was converted for a while there. I stopped spinning as soon as summer rolled around but this entire summer I’ve felt like myself again. It was totally worth it. My tummy is still a little jacked but for the most part I regained my confidence and even managed to get into a bikini. I def still have some work to do but I’m in hardcore lazy summer mode now, who the hell wants to be in the gym when its 85 degrees out. I’m happy to fit into my old clothes and feel good about myself. So Spinning is the secret. Boom!

There’s nothing like being able to make your kid laugh uncontrollably. Today it’s working with: Bawwwwm Bawwwm Bawm- Chick Chickita Chaaaaaa (Otherwise known as that little ditty from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). I literally keep singing this over and over and he can’t get enough. Im talking cracking up, side splitting, shit giggles. Seriously, it’s kinda the best feeling in the world.

Tonight I’m excited to go out with the girls. Dad will be home on the night watch. We’re sending off our Editor-In-Chief of 2 years tonight. The times when I go out seem to be less and less..booo. So, tonight I will get cute, drink a bunch of Vodka Tonics and smoke a ton of ciggies. I’ll try my best to drink a glass of water before bed and down a couple of aspirin. In the morning I will wake up at 7:30 to fritz crying. I’ll get up and do the morning routine. Tonight there will be a fine line between “fun” and “overboard” like their always is. Because, if I do go “overboard” I will hate myself in the morning when Im giving Fritz breakfast, playing and listening to him tantrum. Therefore I may not party like it’s 1999 but more like what it is 2000 and fucking 8. I cannot sleep in. I have to take a call at 11am with a very big advertiser. I cannot be brain dead tomorrow. I must show a tiny bit of restraint and not go “overboard”. Wish me luck darlings. Ill let you know how it goes…

When you start buying crap for your kid you’ll begin to notice the name Melissa & Doug pop up on a bunch of the cooler looking toys. It’s inevitable. It’s not like I set out to buy their stuff it just happened. Their signature appears in the lower corner of all kinds of fun handcrafted wooden puzzles. Im into it.

If for some reason your a parent and haven’t heard of them I suggest getting on the ball. The Puzzle lock thing pictured above it highly entertaining. Most of their toys are made of wood and have an “organic” feel…which is good these days…I guess. Also, what i like about their toys is they don’t feel like a pieces of crap. They are durable and Im assuming if I keep them will take on a vintage-y feel one day, unlike dora the explorer junk or whatever other lame licensed shit most companies make (we don’t fuck with that isht).

You can get their toys right off their site but like I said they also sell at Toys R Us and most boutique-y toy stores too.

Here are the things we own:

I went away for approximately 5 days if you count being at work all day today as one of them. With a kid a lot happens in 5 days. In a weird way you almost forget your a mom for a minute. Im not saying I didn’t miss the little terror but, I won’t speak for everyone, I just don’t feel motherly when he’s not around. Yes of course I have pics of him on my IPhone and if it comes up, yea I have a kid. But for the most part, vacation is a way to reconnect with your former self and your pre kid relationship with your baby daddy. We found ourselves letting all our home life/kid/work worries go out the window. It felt amazing. On my arrival home today I was thrilled to see Fritz. My motherly instincts kicked in to full gear and I went back to making squish faces and ignoring him as he threw himself on the ground for not getting something he wanted. What surprised me the most though, was that he seemed different. He seemed to be, maybe, mumbling a new word and saying Owch when he bumped into something. He looked bigger and more grown up. In just a mere 5 days things can change…Was it him or me? Maybe I was just more observant and sensitive to his antics because I was relaxed from vacation or maybe he absorbed new qualities at Gramas and actually grew a little. In 5 days? Anyway, its pretty amazing…going on Vacation and being reunited with the little Munchkin butt. It felt so good to get out of the routine and strangely good to jump back into it.

Guess what? Im going on vacation tomorrow. Just me and my boo. This is a seriously necessary endeavor. For the next 4 days we will be on a fucking island…Yea, with maybe a few people around. If it rains, I don’t care. If it’s sunny, great. I’ll be reading, drinking, eating and sleeping. Im taking it back to human necessities. Bye, bye internets, bye, bye iPhone, Later Blogging, Magazine, what? See you Monday civilization. Ok It’s possible if there is internet I will be posting 100 Days Of Outfits! See ya!

Have they made this movie yet? Because if they haven’t they might as well come start filming in my house now. I’ve mentioned the screaming in my previous posts. This morning it’s relentless and I feel totally helpless. Is it teeth? Is it the 2 mosquito bites he acquired overnight? Is it the tum tum? I’ve given the reasonable dose of Tylenol. Still he yells. Won’t let me pick him up. Nothing is working. Im banking on this being a tooth thing due to the runny nose situation. Wait miracle of all miracles he stopped. Ahhhhhh relief. Tylenol finally kick in? That bowl of cereal he’s munching on? I don’t know. Wait, never mind, wishful thinking. We are back in action. In this whole parenting thing there are a lot of “I don’t knows?”. The kid can’t talk he can only express through happy, sad, angry. That’s it! I am defiantly getting the pissed off vibe this morning. It’s never the way you want to start you day but I coming to find the sometimes it’s just the way it is. Im zoning out to Teletubbies, he’s screaming, Im drinking coffee, he’s screaming. The sitter is here…I will go find peace in the shower. Ahhhhhhh.