Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

Paela got sick. So every night, at around midnight, she woke crying and we had to help her with whatever the latest problem was. This meant that Aderyn also woke at or around the same time, destroying her 8 hour sleep patterns. Paela still hasn't quite returned to her full night's sleep and neither has Aderyn. But at least now only one of them has a cold and there aren't any major accidents in bed or on the floor.

We celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday a little late this year because of sickness. We invited Camilla and Victor over, but then we backed out because we didn't want to get them sick. But eventually we managed to have fun Seussian cupcakes, read some LeSieg books and do some drawings.  read more »

We had a pretty low-key week.

Paela and Aderyn and I made it to the last ten minutes of story time on Wednesday. I know it takes longer to get out of the house than it used to, and had been prepared for that. But when Paela kept saying "no, no story time", I took her seriously and didn't bother to wake her sister up and get us all ready to go. She changed her mind just as story time was starting, and I figured we could at least do puzzles and whatnot at the library in any case. I shouldn't have listened to Paela's change of tune, because Aderyn was most unhappy about being inconvenienced, and I didn't have any fun. Hopefully Paela at least got something out of it. Juggling two kids certainly is trickier than one.  read more »

I received a phone call while teaching a class from a number I didn't recognize, so I didn't answer it. I listened to the voice mail and learned that another school wanted to set up a phone interview with me. I noted this, but didn't get a chance to call back until late in the evening, wherein they gave me an impromptu phone interview. This reminds me that I haven't seen many adjunct positions this year.  read more »

Wayne disappeared to the CAA conference for most of this week, and I learned to greatly appreciate the fact that I am not a single parent. And I thought last year was tough, when Wayne went to CAA and Paela and I spent the whole time puking ourselves silly! How do you people with even more than two kids handle flying solo?  read more »

I intended to write this email last night after Paela went to sleep. Instead, Rebecca found me asleep on the floor next to Paela's bed at 9:30. There is a reason for this:

On Saturday we threw a pacifier party for Paela. It wasn't because either Rebecca or I was ready to move onto the next developmental stage, but because Paela had finally chewed through her last pacifier. At this point, neither Rebecca or I were willing to go buy new pacifiers for an (almost) 2 1/2 year old. So, instead we decided to help her give up the pacifier in place for a new comfort object.

We invited Camilla and Victor over to celebrate pacifiers. We let Paela have the pacifier all day long. We talked about how wonderful it had been to have a pacifier and how we can say good-bye. We made her favorite food (rice) and had lots of balloons. Then, we went to the Disney store.  read more »

Paela liked to ask me if I was okay every time I coughed the first day my cold went to "bad cough" stage. Previously, coughing was just something people did when they swallowed wrong. And so we would always ask if said person was "okay" and pat them on the back. So when Paela would ask this week if I was "okay" I would reply, "yes, I'm just sick." Just sick.  read more »

The first day of Rebecca back at work wasn't the worst. That was the second day. The one when Aderyn screamed as if I was doing unspeakable horrors to her as I tried to feed her a bottle. That was the worst day.

Camilla came. I knew she was coming with Cameron, but I forgot to mention this to Rebecca. I was out picking up a painting from a show that had just come down when Camilla gave Rebecca an entertaining scare.  read more »

What with family in town and tons of snow, we've felt pretty busy at our house. Last Sunday, with my dad and Wayne's parents and Victor, Camilla, and Cameron, Wayne gave Aderyn a name and a priesthood blessing. Now she's official.

It snowed enough that they canceled Church again for the second time in three weeks. We've gotten quite a lot of cold and a lot of snow. Brrr. Paela doesn't object to putting her coat and mittens on anymore before we go outside -- she gets it and agrees with our reasons for putting them on her. She also "goes to sleep" by snuggling into Wayne's chest whenever he carries her so she can stay even warmer.  read more »

Our first Christmas without extended family. It wasn't 'planned' in the sense that we hadn't intended things to play out this way, but the baby's late due date and the c-section surgery changed our ability to travel. We were determined to create some sort of lasting traditions, but weren't confident how.  read more »

It's snowing outside. Has been most of the night and into the day. They canceled Church, and we're all cozied up today. We watched a bit of the Church library's scripture stories on DVD this morning, and sang some Christmas songs. And felt the snow, though Paela insisted she needed mittens to touch it (who can blame her?).  read more »