The Good and The Bad

We had a really great weekend over here in Seattle. The weather was nice (it usually rains every Sunday but not this weekend), we got to have a Saturday date night, relax at home, and had a fun and yummy family dinner out on Sunday. Everything looked good on paper. The reality however, is less than perfect, only because we thought parenting would get easier as time went on, not harder. We still enjoy life, it's just enjoyed on a much more exhausted level on mine and Brendan's part.

Our Small Human, who has so far always been an easy going and relatively low maintenance child, is starting to become a divo. No, he has not become a pop opera singer, but he is suddenly much more high maintenance. We can deal with the need for constant activities and mind stimulation, that we expected. We were also prepared to deal with a highly energetic little boy who needs to run and jump and explore on a daily basis. We were not however, prepared to deal with night time wakings every night for three months straight; nor were we prepared for his extremely short attention span and inability to sit still in social situations.

Perhaps we are asking too much of our two year old by going out to restaurants and expecting him to sit still and behave for a quick meal. Fine, we accept that that's on us. The nightly wake ups though, are quite possibly, slowly killing us and we just don't know what else to do. He wakes up once or twice a night and always ends up in our bed at some point in the very early morning. It doesn't seem to affect him one bit, but definitely hasn't been good for his dad and I.

Brendan bears the brunt of the wakings, because Small Human often wants daddy, but then daddy has to go to work in the morning. I at least, can attempt to recuperate by napping when the baby naps. I honestly don't know what to do. Are there sleep specialists we can see? Do we just grin and bear it? It's been three solid months of this, and I am incapable of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

I feel terrible for complaining because life is truly good right now, except for the not sleeping and somehow keeping up with our son while completely exhausted part. How does he have so much energy?! We are really big fans of Stumptown coffee in this house. Happy Monday friends. :)