Home Sweet Home

Home Sweet Home. In our case - Home Sweet Townhome.

Never has this sentiment had more meaning to me. After back-to-back trips to LA, a nasty stomach bug, an emergency trip to Ikea for a crib since the little man outgrew the portable play yard my parents bought him, nursing after nursing in the middle of the night, and a huge setback in his napping and sleeping schedule, it was great to be back home.

The house was as I left it. Clean towels covering the furniture just in case of more intestinal distress.

I knew it would take Nicholas some time to readjust to life back on the ranch. But he just won't. Lots of nursing. Waking up two or three times in the middle of the night. Growth spurt. Big time.

My infant sleep research tells me that two weeks before and two weeks after his nine month birthday will be particularly tough on his sleep. My research also recommends that we plan trips around this schedule. Well… that's out of our hands.

So I'm looking at a little over three weeks left in this nine month milestone/sleep disruption process. Then I'm in the clear.

But what will happen after three weeks? I'll let you know.

The Facts of Life

Nicholas and I flew back to California less than a week after our return.

My grandmother spent her last days with her family around her. She passed away in the comfort of her son and daughter-in-law's home.

It was peaceful.

Sqeaky Clean

Recently our household was sick. The kind of sick that requires a special trip to the grocery store for sick people staples and a big thank you to the laundry gods for having included an in-home washer and dryer in our rental townhouse.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, I decided to edit our AM routine and take my son and I to my favorite pancake restaurant for breakfast. I would nosh on tasty delights while I fed him sweet potatoes (the yellow kind). This would be different from most Saturday mornings, but my husband was at a work event and I was really looking forward to being back in Seattle after a week long visit with my parents.

Best laid plan put together, I was ready to nurse my son and then head out the door. Problem was, a bug in his tummy had a different idea.

That day my son had three baths. That day I wore three different outfits. One of which was an outfit repeat that went through the wash and then had to go through the wash again. After having to take both of our slip covers off the sofa, we decided just to lay big towels on the thing. It was a day that involved more hand washing and hand sanitizer than when my son was born. My husband and I were desperately trying to keep contamination at bay.

Unfortunately, we caught it, in case you're wondering. In this process, I learned a little about disinfecting nonporous toys. Washing alone or wiping alone with a bleach wipe isn't enough to clean that super cute giraffe or plastic car keys.

Thanks to the Metro King County website, I now know that you need to do both. Because while those plastic toys may reside in the living room play area and not get a whiff of dirt or grime on them, they are certainly covered with dried on saliva and bleach won't do its job unless the surface is clean, clean, clean.

So here are the words we lived by when we were clean those toys - first scrub, then sanitize.