A little 'sleep' update

Well, so far so good. Omar has been in his own bed for a week and a half now. He is taking his nap very well but the nights are still a bit rough. He is waking up 5 times again. Every two hours. It took us a year and a half to go from 5 times at night to 2-3 times at night and now we are back to square one.
Needless to say, we are both exhausted. Omar barely makes it to 10.30am before going for his nap which means he has a very hard time making it through to the night having a nap that early. (If it was up to him he would be down for his nap at 9am!)
At some of the awakenings I just give up and fall asleep with him in his bed, then waking up two hours later with Omar's foot in my nose and a bad back ache before returning back to my bed for a minute and him waking up again.

I honestly need to contact that sleep specialist as the sleepless nights are definitely taking a toll on my sanity. I feel like I am living at Starbucks these days, or at least, at their drive through, and the coffee doesn't seem to be working anymore at this point as I almost fell asleep behind the wheel coming back from the airport yesterday!
I am going to give it one more week, until next Friday, and if things don't improve, I might have to start a different approach.

Don't get me wrong, I love that Omar is in his own room, and I am so proud of him for sticking with it, but we all need to get a good nights rest!
I can't imagine having another baby right now with the amount of sleep we are getting, as this reminds me of Omar being a new born and waking up every two hours to eat.
I could see it now, one hour Omar would wake, the next hour the baby. It would be a very unpleasant time!

What a big boy!

Well, he is doing it! Omar is sleeping in his own bed in his own room!

I think it helped that he picked the bed out himself and was part of the decision making.

We started on Wednesday evening. He went to sleep without a problem but woke up about three hours later with a nasty cold and fever. The rest of the night I kind of had to lay with him and we were both miserable. At 4.30am we both crawled into my bed and barely got any sleep. Around 9am we finally did fall asleep for about three hours.

Yesterday night he was very excited to go sleep in his own bed, and crawled in it right away. Then he got scared for a minute and tried to go to my bed. I told him that is mommy's bed and he had to sleep in Omar's bed. So he got back in and said goodnight to all the trains on his bed sheets and went to sleep. No crying! He did wake up every hour and I took him back into my bed around 1.30am. Its not that he was crying to get out, he was so miserable with his cold, he had a hard time breathing and wanted me near. I let him sleep on my shoulder and he was able to breathe better.

Today he was very tired and was ready for his nap at 10am. He went straight for his room and it took him a good hour to fall asleep, but when he did, he slept until 1pm! I was able to put all the laundry away in my room and just have my bedroom for me. It was really nice. When he woke up he was very proud of himself that he slept in his own bed and I made sure to make a big deal out of it.

I am also very proud of him, he has always known our bed as his, but maybe he was ready for his own bed. He absolutely hated his crib and he would cry and cry all night long in it.

I don't know, maybe he thought it was a prison or something haha

Anyway, I am very happy and I think Ramy will be nicely surprised to see this change when he gets back from his trip.

I was reading an article today about a family that also has their child sleeping with them. The only difference is that the child is seven years old. I can't imagine having Omar in my bed until he is seven and the author said she is not kicking him out anytime soon. When I started reading the story I was like, thank God we are not the only ones! But towards the end I thought, lets not end up like them!

What a big boy!

Things you need to do when you are two

Well, we survived the birthday parties, and now we are focusing on sleeping in our own bed. For Omar that is anyway. His new bed arrived yesterday afternoon. Two guys came in a big truck and went into Omar's room and put it all together. Omar was very excited to see the big truck on his drive way and he didn't care much for the noises coming out of his room. Until the guys had finished and said we could go have a look. Oh boy, you should have seen his face! He walked in and said with a really surprised voice 'Omar's bed!' I guess he recognised it from the store. he loves it so much and he wanted to sleep in it last night. We went out last night after they left to get sheets but it was rather late when we got back and the sheets weren't dry yet.

After bath time we laid on it for a few minutes and then he wanted to sit in his old crib for a minute as well.

When we walked out to go to sleep he waived and said bye bye to the crib and his bed.

I promised him tomorrow he could sleep in his own bed, and he keeps telling me it is Omar's bed while pointing at his chest.

This morning we had Omar's two year check up. When we pulled up at the doctor's office Omar said: Look! The doctor. I was surprised he recognised the place, maybe because he hates going there.

The nurse checked his weight, height and temperature and stuff, then I had to fill out two forms, one was about exposure to lead and family illnesses, the other was a sheet of questions to see how he is developing. We finished both sheets, except for one of the questions where they asked what a cup, bed, and chair were for. Omar answered juice for the cup which was wrong, it had to be drink and he said sit for the chair. He didn't answer the bed question as by that point he was crying a lot and wanted to leave.

The doctor seemed very pleased with him though, he is 38 inches tall and weighs 30.9 lbs.

She did give me a paper to see a specialist for his sleeping habits as he still gets up at least 3 times a night. She said I deserve some sleep and I agree with her!

Omar also got a flu shot and then we went for breakfast at Panera. His favorite place to eat.

We had a nice breakfast together and he seemed his happy old self again.

Fingers crossed for tonight!

Omar is two!

That's right, Omar turned two today! I am not sure if he fully understands what that means, but he had a great time opening his gifts when he woke up. I think he enjoyed ripping the paper off the most.

His grand ma and grand pa, uncle Jeffrey and his great grand mother called to congratulate him.

It is funny, I was thinking about it last night around 10.30pm, that exactly two years ago at this time I was in labor and waiting for those last two centimeters so I could push. I wanted Omar to come before midnight but it didn't happen. Omar came when he was ready, the next morning, on the 17th. It was nice reminiscing with Ramy about it, and how fast time has gone by..

Omar's birthday party began at 3pm. All of his little friends were invited for a Wiggly good time. I think they did have a good time, we had a moon bounce in the dining room that also had a ball pit in it. The kids loved it! They colored and played with clay, and also played with toys and stuff. Towards the end we had a pinata and Omar really liked that one. He wanted to pull all the strings at the same time.

The last people left around 6pm and then it was rushing to get the place cleaned up for the next party which started at 7pm.

Omar was so tired, he just sat on his little chair and watched his new Wiggles DVD while I vacuumed and cleaned. The second party was also fun. It was mainly adults, so it was nice to catch up a bit. I didn't get the chance to chat a lot though or make pictures as I was running around like crazy. I even forgot to make a picture of the cake which I am so sad about.

Omar was very tired, he really wanted to go to sleep around 9pm and he was out in less than 5 minutes.

Tomorrow he gets to open all of his presents, I am going to video tape it this time, it is so much fun seeing him tear up the paper!

Ramy leaves for Egypt on Monday, I know that will be hard on Omar, so we will see how he does. Omar is also getting his new bed delivered on Tuesday. I am very excited yet nervous. It is a bunk bed. He will sleep on the lower bed of course, until he is old enough to sleep on the top bed.

I hope he likes the bed well enough so that he will actually sleep in it, and maybe for the whole night as well. He is the one that picked it out, so fingers crossed!

The Wiggles

We just got back from The Wiggles concert in Washington, DC. The concert was amazing! Omar and I had such a good time. It took us forever to get there and of course there wasn't any parking, I drove around for at least 15 minutes until I found a spot. We ran over to the venue and in our hurry forgot our banner in the car. Yes, us Dutchies made a banner. We also got roses to give to Dorothy. The concert had already started when we walked in. Omar was excited to see the Wiggles, his face showed disbelieve at first, until we started walking over to the stage. Then he got really excited! We got to our seats, and sat there for about 5 minutes before we got up and went to the front so Omar could dance with the other kids. He had such a good time! I also enjoyed myself very much, there were some nice moms next to me, and the atmosphere was just really fun. Towards the end I got brave and walked up to the Wiggles and got to chat with them a little bit. Anthony was really nice, (blue wiggle) he signed Omar's DVD, but I was unable to get a picture of him with Omar because he told me he wasn't allowed to hold anyone. What a bummer. Omar was just staring at him with his mouth open, it was really cute. Then Sam (yellow wiggle) signed it too and he was also really nice, we talked for a bit and he was surprised I was from Holland. Murray (red wiggle) signed the DVD as well, he looked really tired, his eyes were all puffy. Jeff (purple wiggle) was the only one that didn't sign the DVD, he was not as friendly, he just didn't want to.

I think my concert days with the girls are over, but I had just as much fun going to a kids concert with my son. I am already looking forward to the next one!

Where do I begin?

Well, it has been about two months since I last posted. It is not that I didn't have anything to write, I just didn't have the time to sit down and do this. Believe me, there were many times I thought about updating the blog. I have time to sit down now as Omar fell asleep in his little chair waiting for the cookies we were baking. As it is only 7.30pm I am having a lucky break!

For the family overseas that has been asking about Omar, I will try to go back as far as I can remember...

About a month ago, I had to put all of Omar's outfits away as he outgrew everything. I was not prepared for this as I thought he would wear his 2t's through to next spring. Luckily we had gotten a lot of 3t clothes for his first birthday which was perfect. Besides him growing in length, his feet have been growing like crazy as well, I've had a hard time keeping up with finding shoes that fit him for longer than 4 weeks. Throughout the summer we have gone through 5 pairs of shoes, which two of them he never even got to wear! Same with his socks.

Now that Omar is approaching age two, his personality is
really coming out. He is a very kind hearted child. I really enjoy my time with him and he always seems to amaze me with the things he does. Our favorite time together for me is when we go to the book store where they have a train table set up for the kids to play. We usually go there and play for about half an hour, then walk to the cafe and share a cookie and a drink while reading a book together. he loves reading books and I love that we are able to do this together!

The other thing that he is really into is counting. Everything has to be counted, and I mean everything! He also loves to color and play with clay.

It is getting harder to hide simple things from him as he seems to remember everything, including where I hid things a long time ago. He also recognizes where we are going, there is no sitting in the car for a few minutes while parked in front of the toy store. We need to get in there pronto!
Or when I go through the drive thru for a drink, he wants chicken and juice. I also can't tell him we are going for a cookie and then make a detour, he makes me feel guilty when he asks me where did the cookie go? with a sad face.
Omar is full of surprises, and I love it, he makes life fun!

Last week we went to the pumpkin patch with some friends and Omar had a blast. There was a big moon bounce kind of thing that he loved to jump on, and there were big slides and mazes. There was also a pit filled with corn that all the kids loved to play in. We also took a hay ride which was a lot of fun. On the way home I noticed a little bump on his cheek and thought he had just scratched himself out there, but the next morning it was all swollen and the inside of his nose (which also had gotten scratched) started to get infected. I kept it as clean as possible, but the day after that his cheek was all pussy and so was his nose. We took a trip to the doctor and he gave us some antibiotics to put in his nose and because Omar had scratched open the puss ball on his cheek on the way over, the doctor told us to just put neosporin on it twice a day.
His nose got better, but his cheek didn't. We wound up going back to the doctor a couple of days later as the little dot had gotten over an inch big! Now he is also on penicillin and that seems to be helping. Poor kid, it is always something!

This past Friday we drove down to Fredericksburg to pick up a train table a woman was selling down there. I didn't realize it was one and a half hours away. Train tables are very expensive and this woman was selling it for almost nothing! I decided to go at Omar's nap time so he would sleep on the way down. It took us a lot longer due to Friday traffic, but Omar did great, he had woken up and was excited about the 'choo choo' table. It just barely fit in the car, I had to put all the seats down and Omar was squished on one side, he didn't mind though, he was already loving the table! Fredericksburg is a very nice town, we stopped for lunch and I let him play for about an hour before heading back. We got in some huge traffic and we stopped again half way at a mall so Omar could stretch his legs. The end result is that we didn't get home until 8.30pm while we had left the house at 11.30am. It was a crazy day which was spent mostly in the car but the trip was well worth it as Omar hasn't stopped playing with his trains since we got the table.

Omar enjoys playing with his friends a lot. He loves hanging
out with Ella, I think he thinks she's his girl friend or something. He really misses her now as she is out of town for a month. He has also made some new friends, a german boy named Daniel who is one month younger than him and another boy named Aiden who is a couple of months younger than him. He has a bigger social life than me!


















I have also been busy trying to organize his birthday. It has been a lot of work but I am really excited about it. We will have a kids party during the day and then in the evening we will have all friends and family come visit. It will be a crazy day but I think also lots of fun!
It will be Omar's last birthday in this house which makes me sad thinking about it.
Tomorrow I am taking him to see the Wiggles again in Washington DC. It will be an early birthday gift. I told him we are going and he is very excited. He even got his Wiggles t-shirt out today!
I am also very excited, as I can't wait to see his face when we enter the arena. This time I will bring my camera. We are also bringing roses for Dorothy the dinosaur as the singers come through the crowd to collect them. Hopefully I will be able to make some good pictures. We got front row seats so it should be awesome!
To add on real quick, we had to take Omar's friend Ella to the airport last week. I told him we were going to the airport to drop off Ella. Omar got really excited and said Opa, Willy airplane? He thought we were flying to Holland to see my dad and his wife. Awww

A special time has come to its end

Omar has been exclusively breastfed since birth. He has never had a bottle and didn't start eating regular food until well after 6 months. Today his most favorite comfort time has come to an end. Omar is almost 22 months now. I wanted to stop on his 2nd birthday but with life's pressures and the negativity I have been getting I woke up this morning and felt it was time. I enjoyed this special time with my son very much, We have a very close relationship which I think will last forever.

This morning was really rough though. He woke up at 5am. Normally he would go right back to sleep with a sip of milk from mommy. But without it he cried and screamed and kicked until 11am! Exhausted he fell asleep on my lap. When he woke up I told him he could have something from the toy store if he would give up nursing. So we went to the store and he picked a train set. We set it up and he loves it. He has asked for milk through out the day but no crying so far. I wonder how tonight will go...

8.30pm

Well, bed time wasn't as bad as I expected. I offered him milk before bath time but he wasn't interested which really surprised me! He took a bath, watched 5 minutes of his favorite show Nijntje and we went to the bed. I told him he could have 5 minutes of milk and he did, after that he fell asleep right away, no crying! Since this morning he has taken to a new 'lovey'. It is this little blue dog which he grabbed while he was crying. Now he won't part from it. I am so glad he is finding comfort somewhere else as I've been his 'lovey' all his life. I will miss our special time together but there are a lot of other special times that I look forward to and the memories will always be there!

The Wiggles concert

Last night I took Omar to the Wiggles concert in Baltimore. I had gotten two tickets months before and after getting back from Holland I kind of had forgotten about it. The concert started at 6.30pm, we left the house around 4.30pm so we would have enough time for traffic and parking. There was a lot of traffic in the city as there was an Orioles game at the same time, but we managed to get there early enough. Omar was really excited every time I mentioned the Wiggles but I don't think he really understood where we were going. That all changed when we walked into the arena and he saw the stage. The arena was pretty small which was great as everyone had a good view that way. There were two large screens on each side that were playing the Wiggles movie. The guy showed us our seats which were really close to the stage. Omar didn't want to sit of course, he ran all the way up to the stage and was so excited! He kept yelling for the Wiggles. They had the guitars there and the Wiggles house and Dorothy's hot air balloon. I tried to let him sit on stage for a picture but it was not allowed. We then went to look at the merchandise and Omar picked out a t-shirt and a wand with the big red car on it. He also got a Captain Feathersword hat. He put the shirt on immediately and was waving the wand to everyone. We had about 30 minutes left before the concert started so we just walked around the stage area and made some pictures. Omar was super excited!

When the concert started the dancers came out first, and then one by one the Wiggles. Omar clapped like crazy and had the biggest smile on his face. He sang and danced to all the songs and did all the moves. Half way through the concert, I moved to the beginning of the stage as there were some empty seats and Omar had an even better view then.
I spotted the Popples in the audience and they came down and sat with us. Omar and Ella were really excited to see each other and had fun dancing together.

At the last song Omar and I walked up to stage and danced to the last song. The Wiggles and the rest of the gang came by to wave hello and shake hands and Sam said hi to us and Captain Feathersword shook Omar's hand. I think that must have been the high light of the evening!

Omar was wide awake after that, so I tried to go into the harbor for a bite to eat but as it was Friday night there was no parking so I gave up on the idea and went home.

When Omar woke up this morning all he could talk about was the Wiggles. I am so happy he liked it!

On our way to the US!

We are on our way to Detroit right now. We had to leave the house at 5am to go to the airport. Omar had a real fun day yesterday, we took him to this very big play area with an air mattress, tons of slides and climbing things and sprinklers. He had a blast! Then I went into town for a little bit to get him some Dutch dvd’s and cd’s. Omar stayed with Aunt Vera at the play area and when I got back there they were just leaving. It was my first time riding a bike in at least 10 years and it was fun! Omar got to sit in a front seat on the steering wheel. He cried at first but when we started going he loved it. After that we had lunch and drove to my dads house. We were having dinner there and sleeping over as we had to leave so early. My dad took us to a pancake house in the woods with a huge play area and a petting zoo. Omar was so happy! He ate really well and had a really good time. There was a really creepy guy there, and when Omar, my brother and I went into the play area I noticed he was taking pictures of Omar. I told my brother and we watched him for a bit, then I really started freaking out as he was following us. My brother went over to him and he was trying to hide his camera. We then left the area and went to sit down to eat. He kept looking over at us and I got more upset. When he finished eating he went into the play area and started making pictures of the kids there. He tried to make more pictures of Omar so I went and complained at the restaurant about him. Another lady had already
complained as well. Omar was walking back into the play area and as soon as the guy saw him he tried to make more pictures, then my sister in law went over to him and had a long conversation with him. He stopped bothering us after that but it totally creeped us out. I wanted to take his camera and look at the pictures and delete them all. You can never be too careful that is for sure!Omar ate a lot and had so many snacks and juice that he usually doesn’t get. We got home and he had a nice long shower. When I was putting him to bed all of a sudden he threw up, it was a huge projectile and as it was going up in the air it landed on top of his head and all over his face. I didn’t know what to do, so I just held him until he was finished. We were both covered and the bed too, I felt really bad, for him and for my dad’s bed. I stuck him back in the shower and cleaned him up, then my dads wife was really nice and helped me get out of my puky clothes while holding a crying Omar. It was really disgusting.
When I woke him at 5am he cried so much it was unbelievable, he kept asking to go back to bed so he made me feel so guilty. We even had to pull over because it was getting unbearable. Luckily he was fine at the airport, we got to go check in at first class which was so easy, then at security I was in the back of the line and a woman came up to me and escorted me to the front, so we were through in two minutes. This flight is even nicer than the first one, the seats are really nice. Omar has his own seat again and I reclined it to a bed and he slept for two hours. While he slept I got served an incredible breakfast. I am really enjoying this experience. I know I will probably never fly first class again in my life but it is a memory I will not forget. Omar is watching baby einstein right now on his private monitor with head phones on as they have kids movies. I am just sitting here relaxing and writing about our trip. We will arrive in Detroit in six hours and then we have a two hour wait before we head back to DC. Omar knows we are going to see daddy so he is really excited. I think that is it for now. The two weeks have flown by, I can’t believe I will be back in the US today. I miss Holland already and already looking forward to our next trip back.

Back in Holland

We had a crazy day yesterday leaving Spain.
We had a very big delay and arrived in Holland 3 hours later. My brother picked us up and then we drove to my moms house for some dinner. The weather was very warm so we sat outside. Omar had a good time. We then drove to my brother's house and Omar slept the whole way, we got there around 10.30pm. We went to bed right away, and this morning when we woke up Omar was very excited to see his aunt Vera. He even went upstairs to wake uncle Jeffrey. We had a nice breakfast outside and then Vera took Omar for a long walk to the park. He took an hour nap and then we went to a friends house for a birthday.Omar really enjoyed himself, there were three other little kids there and a kids pool! He was exhausted on the way home and fell asleep in the car. Tomorrow is my last day here and then we will be coming back to the US to see Ramy! We are going to a big play area for kids in the morning and in the afternoon I have to do some last minute shopping. Omar and I are spending the night at my dads house as we have to leave for the airport at 4am. I will miss Holland and the lovely food but I can't wait to see Ramy and I know Omar can't wait either!