First Day of Ski Season

Life goes on in the Faiola-Renoud household, despite fact that 50% of the household (unfortunately, the people in the house that are responsible for keeping the other 50% alive) are deliriously tired. Said adults have taken to going to sleep around 8 p.m. to try to get 6 hours of sleep before morning.

Jamisen has taken to getting up multiple times in a night and yelling at the top of his lungs "Blanket! I need my blanket put back on! Da-aaaaaaad! Blanket!" until someone stumbles into his room and tucks the blanket in just so. This is a new and exciting way to torture the humans above 3 feet tall in the house.

Interestingly enough, Jamisen slept through the first 2 nights of Lily's sleep training. Go figure. Kid wakes up if his blanket falls off but when there is shrieking and screaming in the bedroom next to his, he sleeps right through it.

Lily's sleep training is obviously going well. Day One versus Day Two shows clear improvement. And, I think Day Two would have been even better had she not been outgrowing her little bassinet and accidentally kicked it really hard when she was flailing about. The light blue lines are "restless" - this means I've gotten up but quickly made it back to bed. The pink lines are "awake! awake! awake" and mean that I will not make it to bed quickly or fall asleep easily. They correlate to having to comfort should-be-sleeping infants.

Chris is fully post-cold, post-headache and is on the upswing. It has been a wonderful thing to have him back in the swing of things. The entire family was proud of him for going skiing and taking some much needed solitude time to workout and get some fresh air.

I'm good, barely hanging in there. November is our busiest season for work and though we had projected growth, we got hit with a tsunami of awesome customer love this year with so many orders. We are a full week behind for shipping (despite hiring so many staff members that we needed to add a shift just to fit everyone in the building) and customer love has not been all that forthcoming. In fact, they're so irritated with us that they're doing little internet memes (see below).

That just inspired me to create one for them right back to answer them. Givember, for the non-soap-fanatics among us, is our version of 25 Days of Christmas with free tutorials, special coupons, gifts with purchase etc.... Customers LOVE it and crave it and this year, supported us fully by swamping us with orders.

It's been difficult to have a non-sleeping baby because normally, I'd be able to help out more in the evenings but this year, just keeping my own workload in check has been more than enough to keep me maxed for all the waking hours I can devote to work. These are all champagne and caviar problems though; how lucky and blessed are we that we are swamped with orders?

Jamisen has been fighting a little face rash due to excessive drooling (yes, 14 year old Jamisen reading this; we could not keep you from drooling all over yourself as a 2 year old) coupled with the cold outdoors.

This is Jamisen's reaction to Tic Tac Toe. Whoops ... only 2 and I've already broken his spirit.

Lily had her first play date this week, 9 week old Ewan AKA "Perfecto", the son of my former Assistant Kristen. Jamisen is clearly enamored by the little one and treated him so well - very gently and sweetly.

 We continue to grow into our family of four and love our children more and more every single day.

Sleep Training is Upon Us

Oh Lily, how we desperately love your little round face, your sweet and outgoing personality and your giant, innocent eyes. Your sleeping habits are downright rubbish however. And Sweetie, your days with no sleep training are coming to an end. Quickly.

This is what happened last night after I left you in the guest room/soon-to-be-your-room, screaming your little head off, crawled into bed and announced to your Dad that you would be starting sleep training. Immediately. Notice all that blue? That's because I got to sleep while your Dad took you. And something about being with your Dad calmed you down and you slept for four hours. And last night, oh precious little girl? You slept almost a full 8 hours without waking. The threat of sleep training must have been enough. Let's keep it that way. I don't want to sleep train you any more than you want to be sleep trained.

You're eating solids now and that's quite the hilarious fest. You are not terribly good at it yet but you love it, lunging for the spoon like there could be nothing better. I can't wait for you to continue to gain weight so you sleep even better, more regularly because Sweetness 'n' Light, your parents are tired. But, we love you none the less.

The Sickness Remains

When I last wrote, we were all struck with some form of sickness. I am delighted to report that I am the only one left with said sickness. I have been trying to deny it all week, to be a trooper, and carry on with verve and style but today, I was found out in a very ugly way that I was possibly actually sick.

I was sitting at my desk, a delicious handmade vegan nut energy bar in one hand and a sheath of bank statements in the other. I was deep in thought. A senior team member came into my office with a quick question, did a double take, and then asked, with real concern: "What is coming out of your head?!" Sure, I had felt that my nose was filling up but I was busy, people, busy! This team member is a very very gay man so he put some attitude into it and was all, "Girlfriend, you have GOT to go check yourself. Go! Go! Go!" Sure enough, I head to the mirror and there is a HUGE gob of disgusting, neon green snot emerging at least 1/2 inch out of my nose. Of course I was mortified but now, I'm thinking back to all the assistant interviews I've done this week when I felt my nose filling with snot but didn't want to disrupt the interview to blow: was it happening then? And did the one candidate that pulled out due to "fragrance sensitivities" really just pull out because she was disgusted by my personal hygiene?! Aughhhh, so so so gross.

Chris sprung to my rescue and is taking care of Lily tonight so I can get a full night's sleep. Bless his happy husband heart. 

Speaking of Lily, I am weaning her (not by choice) off of breastmilk as I am managing to produce only about 25% of what she eats during a day but now she's starting to add solids to her repertoire so I feel good that we've gotten this far. Oh, but since I am still breastfeeding (however pathetically), no drugs for me for said horrible form of sore muscles/headache/sinus cold. 

 While our life is extremely chaotic at all times, Jamisen is proving to be an amazing delight. He continues to wow me with his grasp of difficult concepts (he can pick up on husband and wife tension super quickly now and doesn't hesitate to say it). His vocabulary is advanced and full. And, he is a polite, happy boy almost all the time. The times when he is not: 

 Last night, Jamisen hit Lily very intentionally. He got an instant time out. I continued to hold Lily and read to her in the kitchen, Chris came and started cleaning up the kitchen a bit .... and all of a sudden, I realized it was quiet. Too quiet. I sent Chris back to check on Jamisen and sure enough, he was no where to be found. He had **put on his shoes** and walked outside, in the rain, at 8:30 at night, in the dark (!!!) in search of his truck. We found him on the other side of the house, searching or his outside truck. Chris and I debated what sort of punishment to do and decided to take away his beloved kitchen for a day. That worked for now but I do see a day when spankings may be necessary. 

 Lily gets up with me multiple times per night. Let's hope and pray it's  better night for Chris. And on that note, I am taking advantage of this full night of sleep and g'night, sleep tight!

Interview with Jamisen. Second Round.

I last asked Jamisen his three questions here (trains, dentist, "I will teach you.") and sure, I maybe got one of the three questions wrong this time (it was by memory people - I'm just impressed I remembered to ask him again!) and here are his answers now that he is the wise old age of 2 1/2:

What is your favorite color? "Yellow"

What do dream about? "Bunnies"

What do you want to be when you grow up? "Tractor Driver"

What is the meaning of life? "I will get old."

Another Week of Sick

It's hard to believe it but for a second weekend, poor Chris was down for the count. He spent three days in bed, sleeping and generally being miserable. Of course, we threw a dinner party Friday night that he was barely conscious for. But, he held on, undoubtedly for the delicious Pink Vodka Pasta deliciousness that is my standby for dinner parties. In the photo below, Lily has her 'I Voted' sticker because she was my +1 at Election Night parties. My little social, smart, politically savvy girl ...

The kids seem to be surviving the onslaught of germs though it would be difficult to figure out if they ever got better from last week or not. I caught whatever Chris has but managed to escape the 3 day sinus headache he had that laid him flat out.

 To Jamisen's credit, he didn't need one time out all weekend with me. He was perfect - even with this little punch (he pulled it before it connected). 

Lily is just starting to explore solid foods. She got a gluten-free lemon poppyseed muffin taste today and basically lunged at me to get more. Her real meal was sweet potatoes (yummy!) and she did really well for about 12 mini spoonfuls.

Work has been extremely challenging as of late. The company is growing and our sales are high but with growth comes challenges managing it all. That coupled with staff turnover is causing stress but 'tis the season. This is the busy season for us and the only way to get through it is ... to go through it. However, on the plus side, I did learn how to give myself the perfect blowout (that's the hairstyle I'm sporting in the above selfie) so that's a plus. I will leave you with this photo of our Customer Service Team Leader Kevin and Lily hammin' it up. There's your laugh for the day!

The Sicko Family

We're quite the picture of healthfullness in this family ... three out of the four of us down and out for the count. Not that Jamisen recognizes it but he has a chest cold that makes him sound like he might cough up a lung at any given moment. Of course, he's passed this delight onto his sister who is having trouble sleeping since she can't breathe and his Daddy. So, basically, our house is super soggy right now.

Halloween came and went without a lot of fanfare. We had under 10 kids at the house.

We did follow Grandpa Faiola's lead and do full size bars for those 10 kids. Jamisen hated his costume but was stoked about the sugar. Chris thought our pumpkin looked "a little wet" so he baked it, leading to a Mr. Grumpy pumpkin that could have used a face lift.

And, darn those other 50 kids that did not show up, there was far too much sugar left over in this house for me not to end up eating half of it. That caused a downward spiral that's gone all all week that simply must stop.

Jamisen has taken to being less subtle about his attention-seeking lately and has been perpetually locked in his room on one time out or another after hitting, kicking or biting his good-natured sister. It's almost impossible to tell from these photos but he does have a mischievous streak in him.

We tried a new school for Jamisen this week because I'm so distraught over the USDA food pyramid food his current school serves. Jamisen loved it but didn't seem quite comfortable with kids older than him so we will wait and try that organic, hippie, kale-loving school again in a few months.

 We've moved Jamisen's crib out of his room and he doesn't seem to miss it all that much. He does insist on loading his big boy bed up with lots of toys and books, lest he be bored while trying to sleep.

Lily continues to roll over and is starting to sit up with support.

Our downstairs remodel for the mother-in-law suite is coming along, thanks to Chris's careful management of the project.

We went shark diving at Pt. Defiance Zoo this week and found it to be thrilling and interesting. I'm going again while Chris watches from the outside with the kiddos. This is how they disposed of their pumpkins at the zoo. Pretty funny, no?

Fall is here! I took a beautiful run/hike with my friend Jody in the mountains and the leaves were all in piles, fluffy and ready to jump in.