New House, New Rules...

I mentioned yesterday that we just moved into a new house--as in we have slept in this house for only 8 nights.  We are drowning in boxes and I basically have no idea where anything is.  We LOVE our new place.  Great neighborhood (I can still walk to anything that I would want to walk to) &wonderful old house (rooms for all of us - even the toys and the bins for our (MY) craft stuff).  My big worry was that the kids were going to freak out.  Our lives are very cinematic and our move and the run up to it was just as dramatic.  I am sure I will get to that later on, but for now let's just talk about the new house and its new rules.  My son, Jonah, who is almost three, is a notoriously bad sleeper... ask any of my Facebook Friends and they will confirm that a good 75% of my status updates since he was born (yes for almost 3 years now) have been about him not sleeping and my attempts at sleep training him.  My daughter, Vera, who just turned 1 a few days ago is a much better sleeper but until now was stuck in a room with a terrible sleeper... and thus, her sleep wasn't going so well.  Yes, this predicament was huge reason we moved from the cool, hip, two bedroom duplex condo in the heart of Dupont Circle that I absolutely loved, to this character filled 100 year old 5 bedroom craftmansey farmhousey house in Chevy Chase, DC.

The day the movers were moving us in (yes that would be only 8 days ago) a good mommy friend was jogging by (now I am jogging distance to many of my "mom" friends). 

Now I digress for a moment, because there is this thing that happens when you have kids and you are the primary caretaker and you decide to leave your professional job-you make a whole new set of friends who have the same age kids and are doing the same thing as you.  These friends are in a special category and although I may not spend every day with them, there is this "virtual" thing about going through the act of raising your first kid at the same time together that is very bonding.  I am extremely grateful for these friends. They have gotten me through the past almost 3 years - no question about it.

Back to the story.  She stops by to check out the house and say Hello.  And then she says, "so I was thinking about you on my run and decided that you have this new house and you should institute new rules!  New House!  New Rules!  and the kids now have their own rooms and they need to stay in them and sleep!" At least I think she said something like that.  First I was floored that she was "thinking about me on her run?"  I was a runner.  I ran 2 marathons.  Running time is precious time for awesome thoughts and feeling the runner's high... she was thinking about me-WOW!

Now, because it was her, and she knows what  a "sleeping nightmare" I have been living for the past three years, immediately, I was totally excited, happy and hooked on what she said.  All day I kept saying to myself, "New House! New Rules!"  We finally got the kids and they were super excited about the house (I have been talking it up forever).  They both got lots of new presents in the new house and they have all this 'kid only' space which they are super happy about and through it all I kept telling them, New House, New Rules.  And then it was bed time...

Vera drank her bottle and smiled at me.  I put her in the crib and she went to bed.  She did not wake up till 7am the next day.  This was the first time she slept the whole night without waking up (or being woken up) for me...

Jonah watched a show, brushed his teeth, read a book, sang a song, and laid down in his bed.  I left his door open and sat at the computer in the office room with the light on that is across from his room and he got up three times to ask me to come to his bed. I explained the "New House, New Rules" plan to him each time and then he went to slept-and did not get up till the next morning at 7am.  This was the first time in his life (almost three years) that he went to bed in his own bed, in his own room, without Jocelyn or I sleeping with him or near him and did not get up until the morning.  When he woke up, he was so excited he proudly exclaimed to me,"Mommy I woke up in my own bed, in my own room!  Now I get an M&M!"  And yes, we also use bribery in our house and yes he got an M&M. 

This has been basically how it has been since we have been here with a few hiccups that I can totally live with. 

New House, New Rules!  Who Knew?

Thank you to mommy jogger friend, you know who you are!  As I have been thinking about this whole blogging thing, I realized the New House, New Rules thing has to apply to me as well.  I am so not a "rules" kind of person.  Routines, coloring in the lines and rules, I have never been great at them.  That being said, I was a partner at a law firm and I do get the whole you need to do things a certain way and get things done when you need to... I can be disciplined when I need to be but I need a plan.  So here is my "New Blog, New Rules" plan:

I am going to post every day for the next year plus a day. March 31, 2012 - March 31, 2013
I can write more than one post at a time but will date them for subsequent dates.  I can not write previous posts on a later date and back date them (the securities lawyer in me forbids it).
A post can be one word, one picture, or a long story or even a link to someone else's blog...
And after one year and a day, I will revisit said plan...

So, I did it.  Post number 2 and a plan going forward.  Plus I unpacked the entire master bedroom today and both kids are sleeping... guess what I am going to do right now... chocolate and alcohol...

I leave you with 2 pictures: one of each kid sleeping in different places at different times.  It is so crazy how they look like perfect angels when they sleep!



Vera, a few days old, sleeping in Chicago on a blanket crocheted for her by one of the adoption foster angels - April 2011



Jonah, wearing Mama's shirt because our luggage was lost, sleeping with Mama (Jocelyn) in our hotel room in Curacao - January 2011