lately

-  I finally broke down and gave into the Candy Crush Saga craze a couple of weeks ago. Last weekend I told Rodney he needed to download it if for no other reason to send me lives and moves when I need them. He agreed and gave me the go-ahead to put it on his ipad while he was working out one night, but I convinced him he would love it if he actually tried it. I was right. Most nights we spend a few minutes playing side by side (until our lives run out) after we put Isaac to bed. It's pretty funny.

-  Isaac is going through a phase where he is really affected by sounds and noises. He hears everything, many things that I don't, and wants to know what they are. This has been going on for a while but lately it has gotten worse. Last week Rodney picked Isaac up from MDO/summer camp and they told him they had a fire drill that day and Isaac didn't do so well. They also said the phone rang about 20 minutes after they got back inside and he freaked out all over again. Poor guy. He's been talking about it all week. "I hear the alarm. It helps keep us safe."

-  Unfortunately the noise issue is making bedtime rather interesting. At least, we suspect that's part of the issue. This past Sunday marked 4 weeks since Isaac moved into his big boy bed. I wrote about how awesome he did and how proud I was of him. At some point in the last 4 weeks he has learned how to open our door knobs. So far this only affected a few naps where he would come out before I was ready for quiet time to be over. Not a big deal. That is, until Monday night. We put him to bed Monday night at the normal time and he had played hard outside after dinner so we thought he would pass right out. Nope. It took over 2.5 hours, many trips in and out (by him and us) and a few tears before he fell asleep. He slept all night and came into our bedroom early Tuesday morning (which has been happening for a few days). Tuesday night he fell asleep quickly and we breathed a sigh of relief...until he woke up crying at midnight and didn't go back to sleep until 2:15. It was awful. Isaac has always been a wonderful sleeper and we've never had to deal with any kind of sleep issues, so it's especially shocking to deal with now. Last night it took him about 1.5 hours to fall asleep and he woke up crying at 4 am, but went right back to sleep when Rodney put him back in bed.

We're not quite sure what's causing this little phase, but we suspect it has something to do with him hearing little noises and his imagination going wild. I have no idea how to help him through that. I'm afraid to say too much because I don't want to put thoughts into his head that weren't already there (about being scared, etc.). I picked up a night light today and we're trying that tonight to see if that helps.

-  I could write a whole post on my feelings about my last few weeks with my attention on only Isaac, but I'm not sure if I can make it coherent. I feel like I need to try to get my feelings into words before our lives change forever. Look for that in the next few weeks.