Can I Get A Screwdriver Over Here!!

I have this theory that every little boy should come, not with a set of instructions on how to raise them, but with a friggin set of phillips head screwdrivers. I can't begin to guess the amount of times I've had to search this house over for a phillips head, usually of the size that is not in the kitchen drawer, to fix something that A1 or A2 have thrust in my lap.

Why is it though that every single time I need a screwdriver I can't find one? It's not like we don't have a blue billion of them around here of all sizes. It's gotten to the point today that I'm looking for a screwdriver of the liquid sorts or else I'm going to rip all of my hair out!

A1's getting a little better at it since he can now fix things on his own and about the most he needs to do these days is replace a battery or two but A2 is the worst right now. I'll bet you within the last two hours alone I've had to take apart a truck that he shoved another one of his cars inside so far that it got stuck (not once but three times), another car that the batteries finally ran down on but he pitched a fit for me to replace, and some sort of bouncing ball thing that for some reason (A2) or another got jammed up with some sort of unidentifiable gunk. I'm guessing silly putty to be the culprit in that debacle.

Preschool update: A2 went again on Monday and instead of crying he went straight to Miss S and even blew me a kiss goodbye. I was SO proud of him. I try to give him a pep talk on the way there to let him know that he's going to go play with kids and I think he was actually looking forward to it yesterday. I picked him up and he was telling all the teachers bye in his sweet little voice and waving to them. I can tell they are all putty in his hands after only three days. How can they not be? He's the only boy with five girls in the class. What can I say I'm partial to little boys myself.

Weight watchers update: I stepped on the scale on Saturday and it said 143. I was pretty darn excited to see that number. I was hoping it wasn't a fluke so I weighed again today and it read 143.4. woo hoo for me. I'm feeling pretty good and actually look forward to working out even more now. Last week was sort of tough because I literally had NO energy whatsoever and didn't work out but one time. Don't know if I was sick and rundown or just extra lazy.

I've been working out for the past few days again though and even went to the gym yesterday after I dropped off A2. There were only about four other people there which made it perfect. I worked out with two grandmas and some smiley old man that I'm glad left after only 20 minutes. He's one of those that is probably harmless but something about the way he's looking at you gives you the creeps.

I didn't stay super long because I felt a little awkward trying to workout by myself on all the equipment. Plus there was a trainer there and I felt like she was rolling her eyes at me because she knew I had no clue what I was doing. (Bitch)

I officially love Friend 2 more than anyone else on earth right now! I called her this morning to see what was new in her world and we decided to meet up for lunch. I get out of the car to get A2 out at O'Charley's and she said to me, "wow, skinny, you've really lost some weight!"

She.Called.Me.Skinny! I know she was exaggerating a tad bit but w00t! she called me skinny. I'll have to admit I was feeling pretty good before that because I put on this pair of green Old Navy flood pants that I had worn over the summer because I was determined to get in them even though they were a little lot snug around the middle but today I put them on and they fit like they were suppose to. No spillage whatsoever. Her saying that just made it so much sweeter. After I got home I decided to try on this pair of size 8 denim capris that I haven't worn in two years (I have the 2005 ToysRUs receipt in the pocket as proof) and guess what......they too fit perfect. NO spillage. I could not believe it. I was extremely happy about this because this particular pair were 100% cotton and not of the stretch material. Look out Daddy, hope you are prepared to fork over that $25 iTunes card!!

Moving on: I'm so excited fall is just around the corner. This is my absolute favorite time of year, both of my children are July babies, you do the figuring on that one! I love it when the weather cools down just enough that I can open up the windows and turn on the ceiling fans. Two days last week and over the weekend I had all the windows up. I had to shut them back though today, it's too hot when big girls crack a sweat standing in front of the sink washing muffin pans.

Know what else I'm excited about? Some good television that's coming on tonight. I'm sad that tonight is the season finale of Big Brother. I'll officially be going through Big Brother withdrawal by tomorrow. Good thing Survivor starts on Thursday. I'm happy that Dick and Daniele are the final two. I'm guessing Dick will win it all at least that's what I'm hoping for anyway. I know I said I was going to dish on it all summer but since I didn't know if all two of you that read this watch or not I figured I would spare you the boredom if you didn't. Also tonight The Biggest Loser. I've only watched that show all the way through one time and that was the very first group that was on. I watched it last week though and can't wait to see how this group does. I'm pretty sure it's because I want to lose weight myself that I'm interested in it. Plus Alison Sweeney (Sami) from Days of our Lives is the new host and I love her! Anyway both of those come on tonight and I'm really looking forward to it.

Dilemma of the Day: What am I going to do about A2 sleeping in our bed at night?! I created a monster a few months back when he was sick and his nose was stuffy and instead of leaving him in his own bed, that is on the complete other end of the house, I put him in bed with us. At the time I thought it would just work out better for me and his dad because we were both worried about him and didn't want to have to get up 100 times to go back there just to check on him. Well that has now turned into him sleeping with us every single night since that time and while it was cute and sweet for a while I am now ready to either A: hog tie him to his own bed so he will stay in there all night or B: move into the spare bedroom downstairs.

I guess it really wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that he doesn't sleep so much in the middle but completely on top of me where I only have about two inches to work with and we have a friggin king size bed. He flops around in the middle of the night and it's pretty much a guarantee that at some point I'm going to have a foot or maybe even both feet clobber me in the head sometime around 3 or 3:30 in the morning. Even worse than that though, he grits his teeth, LOUD. That makes my skin crawl. I'd rather hear nails raking across a chalkboard than to hear someone grit their teeth. (ugh, it's makes me shudder just thinking about it!)

I tried to encourage him to sleep in his bed on more than one occasion and sometimes is works until he hears me trying to slip out of his room. At that point it's all over with. I've rocked him to sleep in his room several times and put him down in his bed but he wakes up in the middle of the night and comes screaming through the house to the side of our bed and at that point one of us will pick him up and lay him down in between us.

One night last week I decided to try to get him to sleep in his bed. I hadn't slept good for a while and had heard enough of hubby's bitching and moaning about not being able to cuddle next to his wife. I tried a technique I saw on Super Nanny where the mom would sit in the room with the child and not interact with them at all except to place them in bed each time they would get up. That was hard.

A2 knew I was up to something and was determined to get a reaction out of me. He kept trying to hand me his blanket and when I wouldn't take it he would get out of bed and put it on me. After that he would cry for me to hand it back to him but I refused. I never touched it and that was pissing him off. He knew I was trying to get him to go to sleep in his bed and he didn't want any part of it. He cried when I ignored him and cried even harder when he got out of bed and I picked him up and put him back in it. That went on for at least two hours.

At about 1 in the morning I decided I'd had enough and left him in his room to cry it out. (I know I'm horrible) I don't have a problem with letting him cry it out as long as he isn't hurting himself then crying won't kill him.

BUT - What does Hubby dear do? Hubby gets out of bed and goes in there and gets A2 and takes him to bed with him. In all of 30 seconds he had managed to shit on about two hours of my struggling and coaxing A2 to lay down. I was livid. It took all the patience I had in my body (which isn't much if you know me at all!) not to go in there with a skillet upside my husbands head. He knew what I was trying to do but because it was so late and he had to get up in the morning he said he needed to get some sleep therefore A2 got exactly what he wanted. Some days I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle.

I've tried to make his room as cool as possible. It's decked out with all things Spongebob and he has his little Spongebob "waterbaby" in there right beside him. He's got a cool Spongebob night light but he just won't stay in there. I've never had this problem with him before. Right from the start after we brought him home from the hospital he slept in his crib and never whimpered but now that he's older he just won't do it. Is it my fault? I'm sure. According to my husband it's absolutely my fault. Can I fix it? Who knows, I need some advice!! Otherwise this kid is going to be sleeping with us right up through high school.

Funny thing is, I never had this problem with A1. About the worst he would do is come into our room and sleep on the floor on my side of the bed. For some reason he didn't want to sleep with us he just wanted to sleep near us. I would have to do a floor check before getting out of bed so I didn't step right in the middle of him up until about two or three years ago. Now his grandparents were a different story, I think that kid would still be sleeping with them had I not made him start sleeping in the spare room every time we go in to visit. I blame the grandparents for that one.

I know there are some people out there that advocate co sleeping but I'm more of an advocate of a good nights sleep. Who knows maybe I'll try to get him to go to sleep in his own bed tonight and hope that hubby knows what's good for him and doesn't mess up my process again. If he does then it really won't matter if A2 sleeps in the king bed because with his daddy sleeping on the couch there should be plenty of room for the two of us.

I'm not going to edit this so have fun laughing at my mistakes!