Wordless Wednesday

For more Wordless Wednesday click here, here, and here.

The $1 Menu Suprise

On Sunday we went to visit Pop Pop and Gran. When coordinating what we could bring for lunch we were greeted with 'surprise us' ...ok, sounds good! So Loving Husband and I did just that. We went to Jack In The Box, Wendy's, and McDonald's. In purchasing food for 5 people (yep Ace counts in that headcount now, he official is eating enough food to require his 'own' food and not just eat off ours!) we spent $27. Not too shabby. The grandparents were amused and we all were full ... of perhaps not the healthiest food ... but where is the fun in that?! We got...

JITB

2 tacos

1 bacon cheeseburger

1 coke

Wendy's

1 baked potato

1 bowl of chili

4 piece spicy chicken nuggets

4 piece chicken nuggets

1 spicy chicken sandwich

1 cup of oranges

3 frosties

McDonald's

4 french fries

4 piece chicken nuggets

1 cheese burger

1 side salad

1 parfait

1 package of apple dippers

1 apple pie

Dying Eggs

Saturday was our only sunny day this weekend, in fact it really was for a brief time - by 6pm it was pouring, so we were blessed that we had taken that sunny opportunity to dye Easter eggs for the first time with Ace. We had a great time.

Flashback Friday

A year ago yesterday we were on a plane home from California. After just turning seven months old, this was Ace's 4th plane trip and he was having a blast. He truly is a traveler and loves the plane. He wasn't bothered at all by take off or landing and in fact found both to be very exciting. He was a bit of a wiggle monster but for the most part he did great. Especially considering mommy was sick with a cold on the flight home. We had the row all to ourselves and we actually managed to fall asleep laying across the seats. But before that he was happy and all smiles. After this flight he has flown four more times, and while the only added challenge was increased mobility and squirmy-ness, he continues to do wonderfully during flights.

fooks and eeees

Samee - sandwich

Dinee - dinosaur

Dadee - dad

Blankee - blanket
Neme - Nemo

Ringee - ring

Watee - water

Ace seems to have developed a bit of a language pattern. :) Yes many MANY things end in 'eeee' and not a one is supposed to :) Now with words such as 'water' and 'dad' he doesn't always have them ending in 'eeee' but often they do. I suppose it depends on his mood. :) And yes mommy is in his vocabulary too, as is mama. I love to watch him work out the words, you can see the little wheels turning in there and he's doing great.

This video was taken earlier in the month, so he's already altered how he says some words including the eye widening 'fook' which for the untrained ear is 'fish'. What we're actually doing in the video is looking at the computer and Bing images. At the moment we were on fooks, and Neme more specifically. He also goes on to say Neme, red, orange, green, and a few others. He loves to look at pictures on the computer... I think computers are in his blood. ;-)

Nineteen Months Old

We are barreling full steam ahead toward two! Yep Ace is well on his way to being a toddler entirely and losing all signs of being a baby. In fact in recent weeks new babies have been born and he refers to those as 'bebes' so of course he is not a bebe.

Ace's vocabulary is ever expanding past the point of documentation. I was doing pretty well up until 75 words. But life is busy and he's a-talkin' so it's hard to get them all written down. He has started to say more sentences. As you'll recall his first phrase was 'I did it!' and then shortly followed with 'All done, mama' in just this last week he has started to add more and more. Often by repeating something that I have said, such as when I told Nick to get off the table we were eating at. Ace promptly repeated me 'Nicky getdon' and then two nights ago when he was finished with another round of upchucking he said 'All done, Mama sick yucky.' Yes it is, Bear.

Yes, Ace has had his first touch of the 24-hour flu. Around 2:30am on Tuesday morning Loving Husband woke to Ace coughing and took him into the bathroom - where he proceeded to upchuck his dinner from the night before. He then continued this pattern every hour until about 7:30 - I allowed him to try a little water and he wouldn't take no for an answer when seeking Mama Milk and so I gave that too him knowing the end result would in fact be very messy. Indeed it was. He spewed all the water and milk and was not feeling so hot. Over the next couple of hours he managed to snooze a bit and keep 3 or 4 sips of water and 7up down. Then we ventured to the doctor for a prescheduled appointment to check out a knot under a bruise in his leg (which turned out to be a hematoma and nothing to worry about) At this point he hadn't thrown up since around 8:45, had one shockingly impressive round of diarrhea but was in pretty good spirits. The doctor confirmed the flu and we headed home. He threw up twice on the way home. All over himself and the carseat. I pulled over and mopped up what I could without taking him out and then continued on driving home. He fell right asleep. I managed to get him and the carseat without even a flinch of him waking up. So he slept for an hour sitting in his carseat in the laundry room. Once he woke up he was hard to comfort and very sad. We laid in bed and watched some Nemo and eventually he drifted back to sleep - still not taking anything to drink and yet again wanting milk. :( He finally took some pedialite around 5pm and sipped on that until bedtime. He also managed to eat three crackers without issue and went to sleep with just a bit of water pretty easy by 9. So hopefully today he will get back to normal eating slowly and gaining back his tummy.

Besides that illness, Ace for the most part is doing wonderfully. He's growing like a weed! He's grown at least an inch since his 18 months doctor's appointment and is now wearing a size 7 toddler shoe. He's still as skinny as a rail but he's still gaining weight. I say that confidently considering that he went to the doctor after not eating in 15 hours and vomiting up everything he had eaten and he weighed exactly what he did at 18 months. Which indicates to me that he easily weighed at least one pound more than that prior to the sad bout with sickness.

Ace has started to become very interested in numbers. He knows what 1 is and he can actually point out the #9 - although he often refers to all numbers at 9s - he can say the word numbers as well, and we're working on the 'party trick' of 'Ace how old are you? 2!' :)

In his 19th month Ace slept through the night for the first time!!! Yipee. To say the parents were thrilled, elated, in awe would be an understatement. And while he has yet to repeat this wonderful event, he has been leaps and bounds better at his sleep - which is encouraging.

Ace's 19th month also nearly brings a close to mama milk. We are almost weaned entirely. Yes, WE ... momma has to wean too ... it's a sad thing to let go of that special time with him, but since I don't produce as much any more and it isn't really nutritionally beneficial anymore the time has come. We had been down to 3xs in 24hrs: 7am, nap time, and part of the bedtime routine. Oddly enough the easiest one to cut out was right before bed. He seems content to simply take a sippy cup of water and go to sleep. Nap time is the one that we've been working on this week and that is difficult. But we're surviving. The AM feeding is the last one to go - and perhaps the flu bug has the added 'advantage' of ending the mama milk entirely. Either way we'll be done by April 1st, the current goal.

Swim lessons continue to bring both mama and boy great joy. He has a wonderful time splashing, kicking, and dipping under the water. Back floating while still his nemesis seems to be less objectionable than it always has been before - so perhaps one day he WILL back float. :) He also graduates to PT3! The next session starts again in April and he will be with kids 18mos-3years and will learn to jump off the side of the pool, swim to me, and extended breath control even further. We're both excited for the adventure that is awaiting us.

Ace is a growing happy boy and we cannot wait to dye Easter eggs with him, hunt for them, and enjoy many more upcoming spring time activities.

A little birdie

It was only a little over 10 months ago that I started to crochet. To date I've completed two blankets, eight scarfs, a strand of garland, and two birdies! The heart garland was my first attempt with creating a rounded shape and so I thought with that success under my belt I thought I'd give amigurumi a shot. Amiwha?? Amigurumi is a Japanese term for crocheted (or knitted) stuffed animals and my Crochet Today came with the cutest little bird pattern. So I went for it. The hardest part was trying to get started and getting the 'magic ring' formed. I got the hang of it though and away I went.

This picture is actually of the first birdy that I made. Being the first go at translating the pattern into actuality it had its flaws. In fact the butt of this birdie is a bit short and stubby compared to the second one that I completed. However, I gave the second one away too quickly so I only have the prototype to show you. :) The second one though was far closer to what it 'should' be though. I'm currently working on the third birdie to give to a friend's daughter. This particular birdie is now Ace's and it is currently lost in the abyss called the toy box.

I used an I gauge needle, the body and wings of the bird are made with Caron Country Yarn, the beak is made with Lion Brand Cupcake Yarn in Lemon Drop, and then the eyes are just a basic black.

A New Car

Ace's, not mine. You see, Ace has been wanting to ride, go, get on, push, and take over the neighborhood with everyone else's toys. They've all been very accomodating and allowing him 'the baby' to play with the toys. However, he has to wait until they are out playing for him to get those opportunities. So Loving Husband and I knew it was time for Ace to get his own 'vehicle' he's still a bit small to ride a tricycle (not by much though) and so we decided to get him a car that he can push himself around in and the tricycle can come sometime this summer when his legs are a tad longer.


Ace enjoyed 'helping' his dad put together the car. Then the family all enjoyed trying out the car. It was determined that the parents don't fit. We also determined that they've shrunk the car since we owned it. Both Loving Husband and myself recall sitting in the car with our siblings and while it wasn't terribly comfortable it was still possible... but there's no way even twin Aces could fit in there.

He's has had a good time play with the car in and outdoors. He's also had plenty of spills and has explored every method of getting in, out, on, and under it. He's survived several crashes and full on crash on top of him spills. He's a busy boy and he's having a blast.

Flashback Friday

Four years ago this weekend our family ventured out to Vegas. My grandma had never been and while she was anything but a gambler we still thought it would be fun to show her all the neat architecture and pretty over the topness that is Las Vegas. My Aunt took this picture of the four of us in The Venetian. The five of us enjoyed a few days wandering around, eating buffets, and gambling on the penny slots. It was a nice time with family.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

For more Wordless Wednesday click here, here, and here.

He Slept Through The Night!

Yes, you read that correctly!

Ace slept through the night!

When we last left off Ace had successfully weaned off breast feeding in the night. He had slept four nights in a row with seven hours stints and then it all fell apart. It's like by blogging it cursed us! OK likely not. What actually happened is that Ace got sick. That did it and until this past Friday sleep was pretty terrible... taking over an hour to get to sleep, crying when he realized we were no longer in the room, taking 2-3 times to fall asleep and then only sleeping for MAYBE 90 minutes before waking. With 'long' sleep cycles lasting 3 hours. Ugh.

Slowly he has regained those hours since Friday. Saturday night he slept for five hours, came into our bed without milk or water and slept for five more. Sunday night he slept for nearly eight hours, brought him into our bed and asked for milk, he was denied and took the water pretty quickly and slept for another hour after that.

Last night he slept for nine hours and fifteen minutes!!! He went to sleep at 10:00pm. (Silly Daylight Savings messing everything all up.) He woke at 7:15 FOR THE FIRST TIME! Loving Husband woke up and nudged me awake and said.. 'Do you realize that it is 7am and Bear is still in his bed?' and my response was 'Really?!' I was excited and then mildly panicked ;-) I made LH go check on him. Our Baby Bear was curled up in a little ball with his legs up under him at the top corner of his bed totally uncovered. He woke up 15 minutes later since Loving Husband was up and moving getting ready for work and likely because he was uncovered. LH brought him into bed and I gave him mama milk and he slept for another hour. So while 10.25 hours is not the lengthiest amount of sleep he had since he has slept eleven hours before. The NINE HOURS (and 15 minutes) is the longest stint of sleep, ever! Our baby toddler slept through the night at eighteen months and 20 days old!

To say I am excited is the most ridiculous understatement. And how fitting that this is the 200th blog that involves Ace. :) We love you, Baby Bear!

Looking Back

It has been one year since Grum went to be with Jesus. How do you mark such a shocking day in our family? How do you memorialize it on this morbid-'anniversary'? What is there to say? I cannot say there have not been sad moments. I cannot say that tears have not been shed. I cannot say that today isn't a sadder day than another day. However, I can say that looking back it has been a wonderful year. By no means is that to make my grandmother's passing seem trite. But actually it speaks more to the point, she is celebrating and renewed with Jesus. Why would we mourn and pout for a year here on earth wasting away? We shouldn't, we didn't, and we won't.

Shortly after she passed I posted this poem and it still holds true. My grandmother was a beautiful spirit and while we mourn her passing we hold strong to the truth that we will see her again one day in heaven. I can think of no better way to mark a year of her passing than simply to revisit this post and watch the video I made of her life with us. It was a wonderful life and we were blessed to have her for so long.

I miss you, Grum. Everyday.

Bloomed

Eleven months ago our small family ventured to visit the cherry blossoms, and yesterday we did the same thing. What a difference a year makes. It was great that Ace was able to run around and play and he had a blast collecting sticks, playing peek-a-book under benches, and picking up lots of 'fowers'. It was a great family outing and a favorite one that we enjoy every year. We I of course got 2.5 gillion pictures, but enjoy this sampling of a few of the favorites.

A Fort

The other day it was very stormy out. Now granted living in the Northwest rain really isn't a unique experience. However, I remember growing up I loved to pretend my bed was a boat and that everything I wanted to keep needed to get on the bed with me. My brother, he loved to build forts at Grandma's house... I'm sure I enjoyed them too. So that's what we did on this particularly stormy late morning. We built a fort.

Ace absolutely had a blast! He ran in and out and brought Buzz and Woody in and out with him. Then he wanted his momma in. Then he was all done with momma being in there. Then he wanted to eat cheese... yes it was a specific request for cheese. Hmm ok. So I went and got him some cheese and milk and myself some coffee and we had ourselves a picnic in the fort.

After a while of running around in and out of the fort it was time for nap time. After all that running around he was pretty well ready for it and so he laid down and got his mama milk and laid down for a nap inside his fort.

Flashback Friday

Alison, Me, Alyssa

Eleven years and six days ago on a Saturday night our freshman hall 3rd South (Plus 2!) went out to dinner. We went to Oscars, for those of you not in Southern California it is YUMMY. It is also now called Pat and Oscars. I am sitting next to Alison who would become my roommate my sophomore year and Alyssa who would also join us our junior year as a roomie. While this night was just one of many outings it was a good time. I remember so much from my freshman year and could not have asked for a better hall to live on. We had such fun and exciting adventures. Including turning our hall into a western town for Christmas, covering an entire wall in magazine 'art', putting a bed up on top of the science building (the frat got blamed for that one!), and on my birthday they helped fill my room with balloons. There are so many memories and friendships that were formed that year. And I am glad that I am still in touch with both of these girls and both of their lives have taken such wonderful directions.

A Sunny Saturday

It has been beautiful weather here in the Northwest this past week. Minus the random bout of snow that dropped sporadically around the Puget Sound the last couple of days. Yep, snow in March with cherry blossoms in nearly full bloom. Bizarre! Thankfully, the snow was fleeting and short lived and while it is still brisk outside it is clear and sunny...ok well not today BUT... it's been wonderful.

This past Saturday Ace was so thrilled to be able to play outdoors in just a t-shirt and pants. No coat or bundled layers. He ran everywhere through our yard, exploring what he had forgotten since he had wandered around in the summer.

Yesterday I shared with you these photos. Ace loves to pick his Momma flowers and we are more than happy to have him pick those flowers - picking them while they're flowers at least cuts back a little on more of them spreading their love around our yard. ;-) And so he spent some time doing that. Then he went onto the front yard and found a pretty cool stick. He was fascinated with the hole and carried it around for a long while.

Of course Ace enjoyed playing with the kitties who also were enjoying the sunny weather. Tort and Nickolas enjoyed running around. Tort had a good time hopping up onto the fence and taunting the neighbor's dog. Ace was over-excited wanting to join Tort on the fence. I about died laughing when Ace and Nick were playing peek-a-boo through the grass blades. It all went array when the infamous stick became a bludgeoning tool and Nick found that objectionable.

The fun continued on for a while longer and involved snacking on dried grass, yum! We enjoyed racing each other (yes, I did put the camera down for a bit!) back and forth to the fence - he won - and in another few months (yes months) he likely will be able to win completely legitimately. Ace and I had great afternoon and I captured many memories in pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

And this time last year...

For more Wordless Wednesday stop by here and here.

A Cold or Allergies?

That's been my current debate the last three days. Note the lack of weekend blogging? No it wasn't due to much excitement and adventures being had. No sadly it was mostly due to being sacked out on the couch and conserving enough energy to get up and feed my toddler! With Loving Husband gone for the weekend serving our country, it was just Bear and I hanging out at home. My nose leaking like a faucet and myself cursing the timing.

You see my dear friend Vanessa was due to have her son any day! And in fact he finally arrived (a week late after induction) yesterday. Well rats! I can't go to the hospital to visit a newborn with my nose draining faster than Niagara Falls! But is it allergies or a cold? If it were only allergies then no problem! But arg there's no real way to tell - well there is a slight way to tell - pop an Allegra-D and see what happens... but I knew... So resolved that regardless I was not going anywhere until all symptoms have been gone for 24 hours - I wallowed on the couch.

Sunday I established that while allergies might be a part of this nonsense - when I woke up with my glands swollen and the feverish warm watery eyes - I gave up the battle and resigned myself that I indeed had a cold. I was in fact pretty darn miserable yesterday. Ace on his part - who he himself still has a bit of a cold - did wonderful without much mommy attention. In fact he took care of me. I being laid out on the couch for all moments except for diaper changes and meals, he did very well to entertain himself and even helping mama. He brought me a new tissue box when my other one ran out, simply by me explaining where the new one was. He even went up to my bedroom and brought down my water bottle so that I could rehydrate myself. He was very helpful and constantly kept coming over and asking for a hug ... or offering me one.

This morning I woke conflicted yet again. I woke up sneezing full force - something that yesterday (a rainy day) had subsided. This I've established is the allergens causing that fun symptom. However, I could breathe through my nose again but my glands were pretty swollen... an apparent trade off? Either way I've now got a nice sexy rasp to my voice, can breath through my nose and I have a bit more energy. My glands which were pretty swollen when I woke this morning seem to have calmed down now.. so I think my cold is on the mend. Either way I hate hate hate being sick... and most of all I hate missing meeting the newest addition in the hospital! Boo! I have received word that Mom and Boy get to come home later today! Yipee! :)

So here I sit quarantined and not spreading my germs - but man is it the pits.

Flashback Friday

One year ago tomorrow this video was captured. Ace had been crawling for a few weeks at this point and was exploring his surroundings. The end of the video is cute with his squealing. I love to watch him smile over at me. And yes aren't the gates lovely? We had a full on extra-large baby prison going on in what is now the play room. It's weird to think that those gates were bought just a little over a year ago and now only half are in use - and I'm contemplating the need of another 4-part panel at all (in front of bookcases) so we'd be down to only a set of gates in front of the tv downstairs and that's mostly for my sanity sake so he doesn't touch the buttons :) and the one that keeps in pinned in the playroom, we'll see! And yes he is quite stubborn on trying to go THROUGH the swing and not around it - but he seemed content just doing it his own way and that still holds true today.

His first phrase!

Over a month ago when I posted this blog I told you that 'coming soon' would be a post about Ace's first phrase. We had even captured this footage at the time of me writing it - I just never did anything with it. Well here it is 4 weeks later and I am finally getting around to doing something about it. You see Ace at 17.5 months old uttered his first phrase and it was finally captured while he was feeding the kitties breakfast one morning. Enjoy!

He did it! Yep Ace's first phrase was "I did it" Although he officially uttered the phrase in this video - he didn't do it with nearly as much excitement and pride that he often does it with (of course not he was on camera.) :) Normally he squeals the phrase with sheer excitement similar to this. Since his first phrase he's added a new one that he uses whether applicable or not.

His second phrase is "All done Mama" Now sometimes he is "All done, Mama" other times he's "All done (with) Mama" Siiigh. Already?! And then many times he is "All done mama" when he's with Dad and Mama isn't anywhere to be found so he's figuring it out bit by bit.

While I'm talking about language and words I'll document the other words that Ace has added to his vocabulary the last couple of weeks:

blinds, hug (I love this one!), breek (break), broak (broke/broken)
mac (macNcheese), greeps (grapes), haar (hair),
cheken (chicken), wine, ouch, turn, booger

Wordless Wednesday

Turkey Burgers

The other day I looked in my fridge to see the turkey meat staring me down. I had a quick deep sigh assuming that I had already let the meat go to waste and I picked it up to verify this fact with a quick glance at the date. Nope! I still had an extra day to use it! Whew! I had recently made meatloaf and so I didn't want to make that again. Although I have made a yummy meatloaf before with this recipe. I didn't want to just mash it together and make turkey burgers - it didn't sound appealing and I didn't have much culinary inspiration to create a recipe on my own. So the hunt was on.

I scoured my cookbooks for a ground turkey meat meal. Julia Child failed me, Martha Stewart failed me (gasp!) However, the next book I picked up was the winner: 365 Dish A Day Cookbook on page 103 was my meal for the night. I adapted it as usual, but since the recipe isn't readily available for you to click I've posted both the original recipe and the one that I used as adapted by me.

Original Ingredients:
1/4 cup of long-grain white rice
salt and pepper
1lb of ground turkey
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and grated
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground allspice
vegetable oil for frying

Ingredients (as adapted by me):
3 Tbsp of apple sauce
1lb of ground turkey
1 small uncooked red apple, chopped finely
1 small onion, chopped finely
1 garlic clove, chopped finely
1 tsp ground sage
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground allspice
vegetable oil for frying

Directions:

• Cook the rice until tender. Drain, rinse under cold running water, then drain well again.
  
• Put the cooked rice OR applesauce and all the remaining ingredients in a large bowl and mix well together
  
• With wet hands, shape the mixture into 8 thick burgers. Pour a little oil into a large, nonstick skillet, add the burgers and cook for about 10 minutes, turning them over several times, until they are golden brown. Remove from the skillet and serve while hot.

The reason that I substituted the applesauce in place of the rice was simply because I got started late and 1. didn't have white rice, I only had brown rice - which even in a rice cooker takes FOREVER and 2. I knew that without the rice I'd need some moisture - so since it already had apples - I figured the applesauce would be a good alternative and indeed it was! Yummy, not too applely though. In fact, if you didn't know they were in there you might never taste it.

I of course had the hand of my happy helper - who loves to cook whenever he gets the chance - so he helped stir dry ingredients together. Momma took over when we added the raw meat and popping hot oil and he sat in his chair consuming some applesauce. Yum!

The burgers turned out great - I didn't eat them with a bun or anything - just ate them straight. The biscuits in the background are an upcoming recipe that I am going to try. Those were leftovers from an event we hosted here a few nights prior. They are yummy. Stay tuned!

Alternate or Actual Reality?

The last ten days have been a new chapter in our progress toward sleep. There have been some low low moments and some very high, encouraging, and exciting moments as well. Ace by 'official' standards (6 hours+) has slept through the night four of those ten nights, three of which were the last three nights. We have eliminate night breastfeeding and that seems to have been the biggest factor in his increased slumber. He receives breast milk before he gets into bed and then again after 7am. When he wakes in the night he's offered the bottle after his first big sleep - which after the first night of our trials - the shortest stint of sleep was 4.5 hours and that was due to one of our cats jumping on that (more on that in a bit.)

Ace still has a mini tantrum in the night when he isn't allowed to get the breast milk, but it often doesn't last long and will either take the bottle or hold my hand - overall his behavior has already vastly improved from the earlier part of this past week. He was getting very agitated and spinning around and thrashing all over the bed - ticked off he couldn't have the milk. It's a process and it is getting better.

Friday night was a whole other story around here. This was behavior we had never dealt with in it's intensity stubbornness. That day he had taken a three hour nap from three until six. Again I will state this is his longest nap ever outside of the newborn phase. So when he was requesting the bottle and skipping mama milk entirely right at 8:45pm I was awestruck. Then I was struck back into reality later when after literally 30+ times of putting him back into his bed. I locked him in his room at 10:14pm. Siiigh. He of course got out of bed again and was thwarted by this evil door. He screamed, banged, screamed mamamamama (broke my heart!) and finally it was silent at 10:28pm ... not terribly bad in the grand scheme of things - I should have done it earlier than that rather than spending the 85 minutes going up and down the stairs putting him back in bed. Siigh. So finally after it being quiet for about 20 minutes I decided to go check on him....

This is what I found.... and that was as far as I could open the door.
So I put the camera in and hooked it around the door to assess the situation with the night-vision setting and I found this....

I did have to nudge him ever so slightly and of course he woke back up. I picked him up and hugged him tight and laid him in bed with his fish (Nemo) and he went back to sleep within ten minutes. No bottle, no mama-milk. And he slept from 11pm-5:45am (nearly SEVEN hours!) After that he woke one other time still seeking the mama-milk and had to wait - finally at 7:15ish he woke and was able to enjoy his mama-milk.

Were we merely living in the twilight zone on Friday night? Was it going to be required he wear himself out that much by screaming for 15 minutes in order for him to sleep that long again? That was my fear as we put him down to sleep on Saturday. He went to sleep at 8:45 and slept until 3:45am (an official SEVEN hours!) what excitement!!!! He came and found us in our room and climbed into bed. He took less than a sip of milk and went to sleep until 6:30am, when we woke and fussed for a bit wanting mama-milk. He fell back asleep with a good ol' staple of Mama singing Kokomo. He slept for another hour and then received his mama-milk.

Last night he went to bed with relative ease. Fell asleep right at 9 and then at 11 we heard his cries. Uh oh! It was more than panic in my brain when I was screaming internally NOOOOO! It turned out he was just overheated (he has a space heater in his room) and had too many covers on that night. Loving Husband adjusted his covers and he fell asleep without much fuss. And slept until 6am! (Another SEVEN hours!!) He woke again at 7am and was greeted with mama-milk! Good job, Baby Bear!!
Our goal is to eventually phase out the bottle in the middle of the night entirely and in the nearer future than not I am planning to wean him entirely from the breast milk. The next phase of that will be to remove him from that 7am feeding. I have a feeling after we do that - he won't be as eager to wake and seek it out hoping it is 7am this time. :) However, we'll move slow so as to not interrupt this delightful SEVEN hour sleep stint cycle he is in.
Now earlier I mentioned our cats jumping on Ace waking him after a solid 4.5 hours of slumber and robbing him the chance of potentially more. Perhaps that was the night he would have slept through the night... ok unlikely... but still! Our cats do NOT need to be the reason he isn't sleeping - so sorry kitties you're getting the boot! Luckily, their boot was just down to the bottom level of the house - they had the whole playroom and laundry room to wander in. One day last week I went and purchased them new beds (they previously had these 'normal' cat beds that the billowed out over) and put them down in there. While they're not thrilled with this arrangement - since previously they slept on our bed or Ace's >:-[ - they aren't protesting too loudly or revolting in bad behavior. So for now until Ace is able to kick them off, not care, or share his bed with them - they will remain in their own beds in the laundry room.

Sleep is coming to us all slowly but surely.