Resignation Letter

To Whom it May Concern:

 

I, Rudy Cicci, will be resigning from my position of President of the Avery Cicci Fan Club, effective immediately.  I've had enough.  She won't leave me alone, and she is always trying to play with my toys.  Whatever I have, she wants.  And now that she is crawling, I can't get away from her.  She is driving me crazy.  And during these times, I feel compelled to hit, push, shove, kick or knock her away.  Nothing else seems to work.  I. Hate. Sharing.  But then Mom or Dad yells at me.  I'm in a lose-lose situation.  

 

As such, I feel it is in my best interests and Avery's, to no longer be President. 

 

Thank you,

 

Rudy Cicci

He Just Can't Seem to Lose!

Papa is on a roll! 

1st Place Red Chili:  Check

1st Place Green Chili:  Check

1st Place Ribs:  Check

 

Papa recently competed in a ribs cook-off downtown with a group of friends.  We were there to show our support with custom-made apparel :)

 

Before we left, Avery was practicing her poses

Getting it just right

 

I promise that red ball was already in the stroller and it didn't even occur to me what this picture would end up looking like when she was playing with it! 

 

The Farmer's Market was also open, so we did end up with some fresh apples

Such a ham, no pun intended!

 

Fingers-crossed he keeps this streak going for the World Cook-Off in October!!

Some BIG Changes

It seems Rudy has decided to grow up overnight. 

I think the sickness really started our latest challenges (or maybe it was just time anyway?).  Ever since getting sick, Rudy has had a hard time adjusting back to his regular nap/bed schedule.  He was on such a good and easy routine of being put down for a nap between 1:00 and 2:00, sleeping for 2-3 hours, then laid in bed at night right around 8:30 and sleeping through until about 6:30-7:00 each morning.  It was wonderful because Avery basically has the same schedule.  Which meant I had 2-3 hours in the afternoon to do things around the house, work extra hours for work, work on jewelry, or just relax.  And I knew at 8:30, I had the evening to myself.  Or if John was home, we had an evening to spend together -- catch up on shows or even go straight to bed ourselves.  Not so much lately. 

Naps have been a struggle.  Bedtime has been a struggle.  He has started his freaking out, screaming and crying production when he gets put in his crib at naptime.  Some days he cries for 15 minutes and goes to sleep.  Some days he never goes to sleep.  Same goes for bedtime.  After baths and while Avery gets her bottle, Rudy gets to watch a show on the computer.  And we had this nightly conversation:

Easy times:

Mom/Dad:  "Rudy, are you ready for night-night?"

Rudy: "No"

Mom/Dad: "Ok, 5 more minutes?"

Rudy: "Yea"

Five minutes later:

Mom/Dad: "Ok, Rudy, its been 5 minutes.  Tell them goodnight."

And he would.  We would walk back to his bed, lay him down, and walk out without a peep from him the entire night. 

Hard times:

Mom/Dad: "Rudy, are you ready for night-night?"

Rudy: "No"

Mom/Dad: "Ok, 5 more minutes?"

Rudy: "Yea"

Five minutes later:

Mom/Dad: "Ok, Rudy, its been 5 minutes.  Tell them goodnight."

Rudy:  "Nooo"

Mom/Dad:  "Ok, 5 more minutes."

Rudy:  "Yea"

Five minues later:

Mom/Dad: "Ok, Rudy, its been 5 minutes. Tell them goodnight."

Rudy: (Sad, puppy dog face added in) "Nooo" 

Then he would whimper and cry heading back to bed and put on a production being laid down.  Some nights he falls asleep after 15 minutes.  Some nights it goes on and on and on until one of us goes and gets him, brings him in bed with us where he calms down and falls asleep, and then I carry him into his crib later that night. 

He has even started to tell us "5 more minutes"  -- little stinker.  I cut out numbers 1 through 10 in different colors and glued them to different shapes in different colors, made them in to magnets, and hung them on our fridge.  It helps me remember to count, practice colors and shapes during mealtimes.  Anyway... Rudy counts by pointing to each number and repeats "Sii, Sii, Sii.." all the way through.  We can ask him which one is blue or where is number 2, etc and he does a pretty good job of pointing them out, but he just can't say all the words yet.  So we get this:

Mom/Dad: "Rudy, are you ready for night-night?"

Rudy: (With his pointer finger out) "No.  Sii.."

Mom/Dad:  "Oh you want 5 more minutes?"

Rudy:  "Yea"

I played around with bedtimes and it seems that if he took a good nap, he wasn't ready for bed until closer to 9:30.  The nights I let him stay up longer, he went to bed so much easier.  And the days he skipped naps, he was ok to go to bed around 8:30. 

It seems he is either ready to ditch the nap, or he needs a later bedtime. 

But for real??  He's 2!  Just turned 2, in fact.  Aren't kids supposed to take naps until they are like 4 or 5??  I was counting on several more years of naps!!

I'm thinking an afternoon "quiet time" in his room will be my new attempt.  He doesn't have to sleep, but he has to play quietly in his room for an hour or two (two preferred, but we will see!).  But who am I kidding?  The kid doesn't understand the word, "quiet"...

And since we have ben having so many sleeping challenges, we decided to tackle this challege, too...

 

Rudy's BIG BOY BED!!

He is SO happy to have a big boy bed in his room.  Wow.  He has showed every person that has walked in our door.  He climbs up proudly, snuggles in, and jumps around.  We figured since we were sorting out his latest sleep issues, why get it figured out and then throw in a new bed and start from scratch?  And he has been getting really good at climbing on top of his crib lately, too! 

Some pictures of the change-over:

 

 Lots of help from these two!

 A little foreshadowing of how most nights will likely be..

And how's it going so far?

Day 1:  I laid with him for a nap and he was not interested in sleeping.  At all.  So no nap.  At bedtime he laid down with John about 9:00 and was out, but woke up crying at 10:30.  We attempted to lay in bed with him, each taking a turn, but he wouldn't calm down.  So he came in bed with us and fell right asleep.  About 1:00 I woke up and took him into his bed.  He woke up slightly, but didn't mind and fell right asleep in his bed and slept there the rest of the night!

Day 2:  Didn't attempt a nap in his bed.  Gran and I drove to Bloomington to return some stuff to the Home Depot, so the kids napped in the car for about an hour and a half.  I laid in bed with him about 9:30 and he fell asleep within 10 minutes and slept until 6:00!  A little earlier than I prefer but getting better!! 

In addition to this BIG change, Rudy has been resisting a diaper.  We play with the Davlin's about once a week and Nolan has been potty training.  A couple weeks ago he saw Nolan go potty on his potty and came home and wanted to do the same.  Luckily, I had anticipated potty training in the near-ish future and already had a potty for Rudy.  Since then he has sat on it several times, usually before his bath, but has never actually gone potty in it.  He sort of "got over it" and lost interest so I put it away.  Then Nolan came over a few nights ago and used the big boy potty to potty and Rudy must have noticed that he doesn't wear a diaper.  That night Rudy had the biggest meltdown over not wanted to wear a diaper.  So fine, I can jump into potty training..but not at 7:30 at night!  After almost an hour of screaming and crying, I got him to keep the diaper on (he took off 2 before that!).  The next morning he was ok with the diaper, though.  So I thought it was just because of seeing Nolan -- I really don't think he is quite ready yet (in fact, the book I am reading said in the first few lines, "on average, boys are ready around age 3 and girls are ready around 18 months"  I figured next summer when Rudy is almost 3 and Avery is 18 months, we would do them together.  And just in time for preschool for Rudy..perfect, easy-peasy, and happy to push it off another year!).  But when we came home from our trip to Bloomington, Rudy stripped down naked and wouldn't put a diaper on.  I pulled out the big boy pants I had bought, and he happily put them on.  He was so proud.  Of course he never actually used the potty, but I guess we are getting there.  So it looks like potty training is in our very near future.  I feel so unprepared.  There are so many "methods" and "best ways" (like everything child related) and I just don't feel confident in trying one over the other.  And "they" all seem to agree that if it doesn't go well at first and if he truly isn't ready, it can be a long and drawn out process with all kinds of issues.  Of all things parenting in the first few years of a child's life, potty training terrifies me the most.  I am so nervous about this.  Wish me luck!!  I mean, wish Rudy luck!!

In Sickness...

Ugh.  Sinus infections took over our house for a couple weeks.  I am happy to say that as of now, I can just about report a clean bill of health for the Cicci's...thankfully! 

It all started a few weeks ago with Rudy.  He was the first to come down with the sickness.  He was waking up at night, coughing, crying, lots of gunk in his eyes, snot all over... a mess.  The poor kid looked miserable.  And to top it off, he was so dried out he started getting horrendous bloody noses.  And I mean horrendous.  We are talking blood like I've never seen before out of a nose.  Of course he hates to have his nose or face wiped off, so trying to keep a kleenex to his nose was near impossible.  Picture this...  Me trying to keep a cloth next to his face, while he resists and runs around the living room, crying and screaming, throwing himself on furniture, whipping around...basically blood was all over.  Rug, couch, Rudy's clothes, my clothes.  Yuck.  Then the next day he woke up from a nap with a bloody nose.  I was at an appointment so John had to handle the masacre by himself.  When I got home and saw his room, I would have guessed he lost a limb.  His sheets were covered, clothes, John's clothes, his rug, the bathroom was a mess because he went straight to the tub... yuck, yuck, yuck.  Not only were these bloody noses a mess, but huge blood clots were coming out.  I was concerned part of his brain fell out (I may be exaggerating a tid bit, but it was so disgustingly huge).  And John said there were several clots the next day, too.  We let him sleep with us when he woke up in the middle of the night (which was usually around 11pm).  Sleeping with a 2 year old shouldn't count as sleeping.  Especially a sick one.  Rudy wanted to lay on top of me.  Either straight on top of me (so that when he lifted his head up to cough, it was directly in my face) or with his head on my stomach and his feet on his dad's.  And very restless sleep, being sick and all.  Poor guy.  Oh and he refuses to have covers even touching him.  He must be warm blooded because John and I were freezing!  After a few nights of that, I took him to the doc and he was full of fluid.  Everywhere.  I  had called about the bloody noses previously, but they didn't seem concerned and said to run a cool mist humidifier...between that and the antiobiotics, Rudy was finally getting some relief!

Sick boy on our way home from the doc

 

The same day I took Rudy to the doc, I took my car to the shop.  It had been making some screaching noises whenever I pushed on the brake.  Two hours and $800 later and my car was fixed!  Sigh.  I needed all new brakes, roters, pads (whatever the technical words are.. I needed the whole sha-bang).  John was at work, so Gran was with me.  She was nice enough to buy us lunch afterwards :) 

Avery was showing similar symptoms, but not as bad as Rudy.  We took her with when we went to the doctor, but she was ok enough to not get meds.  But the doctor said if she got any worse to call and she would send over a prescription.  Well poor girl got worse.  In fact, she is now on her second round of antiobiotics, but they seem to be doing the trick.  For several days, she was not her happy go-lucky self.  She was clingy, whiny, crabby, hardley would crack a smile... it was pretty awful seeing my normally content, go-with-the-flow, happy girl looking and feeling so miserable.   

Needless to say, John and I both ended up sick.  I am on an antiobiotic now, but feeling much better and John is almost back to normal, too. 

Plus side - we now have 2 cool mist humidifiers that also work as a small night light and a sound machine.  And with the winter season approaching, I have a feeling they won't go unused!  And speaking of winter season, it is comforting to know I have brand new brakes and parts when the winter weather comes.