Blogaholics Anonymous

I had good intentions of writing a witty and lengthy post this afternoon ... but I was overcome by the technology of it all. Matt set up our blog, and I couldn't remember the username or password to sign in. It's like my tech skills are deteriorating as we speak!

For Valentines Day, I made a gift suggestion to Matt. I wanted a "used" portable hard drive. By "used" I meant "used by him," not something from Craigslist. The computers of a few friends of mine have recently met with untimely (literally) deaths or crashes, as it were. Fearful of losing all documentation of the last five years of our lives, I have been anxious to back everything up on a portable hard drive. Matt has made my dreams come true, and I'll finally sleep easy tonight ... as long as Eric sleeps easy tonight, that is. :)

I titled this post "Blogaholics Anonymous" because instead of posting this afternoon, I spent an embarrassing amount of time riveted to the blogs of people I don't know and with whom I'm pretty unlikely to meet because they're about six degrees away from me in "blogland." In fact, I saw the term "blogaholic" used in one blog and experienced a little jolt as I remembered that I have two kids and a life going on around me. However, with that said, thanks to all of the blogsters I saw today ... it was a fun way to pass an hour of protest screaming from a child in the midst of sleep training.

That's right folks ... we're sleep training the little one. As with all things child-rearing, it seems like you take 2 steps forward and 1 step back, but we're surviving. And hopefully, we'll be sleeping through the night soon.

Jake's doing great. This stage of life is such a kick as a parent. He says such funny things. A friend of mine has a side section (will have to ask how she created it) just documenting the funny things her little boy says. I feel like I'd have new material everyday, and I think I need to be recording things everyday because I forget them so quickly. We recently cut out naps and now have a one-hour "quiet-time" in which he has to stay in his room and play quietly. If you're wondering how I get him to stay in his room for one hour without locking him in, behold the power of treat bribery. Actually, I choose to term it "positive reinforcement." We start out with three little treats on a plate. Each time he comes out of his room, I eat one of the treats, and whatever's left at the end of the hour, he can have. This has worked beautifully, except that he's changed his tactics and now will just open his door and ask me (in a voice most suited to outdoor play), "Is it time for me to come out?" The answer is almost always no, and today, I guess he literally got so tired of waiting that he fell asleep behind the door. When I went in to welcome him out of his room, I couldn't open the door because he was sleeping behind it. Last night, Matt took a picture of him huddled asleep by the nightlight in the act of playing with his race cars. As you can tell, he doesn't "give it up" until the last possible second.

This is going to be my first post with pictures. This is a pic from my dad of Jacob with the snowman they built for Christmas. Now our blog is more equal opportunity with one of Eric and one of Jacob.