Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Another Early Morning - and I'm a Winner!!

My day has been really up and down. It started at 4:30 a.m., when the dog lady upstairs got up for the day. She of course woke up Eli, who started screaming in his crib. He and I were up for about an hour, and then I attempted to put him down to sleep - amazingly, he actually fell back asleep. I on the other hand, was ANGRY. Who on earth wakes up at 4:30 a.m.?? And why were we so lucky to have a neighbor above us who does this??

I was not in a good way this morning, and almost marched up there again, but knew I wouldn't say anything nice so I tried to go back asleep instead, thinking about poor, teething, not-sleeping-well Eli.

(The picture above is from last week. Don't worry, that snot sucker was never used for its actual purpose - he uses it as one of his toys instead.)

Anyway, I did finally fall asleep, and Eli was back up at 7:30 a.m. I took him to playgroup and then we came home and played for a little bit before his next nap. You know what really turned the day around?

I won a blog contest!!

I have entered so many blog contests and never won a thing until today. The blog, Seven Dogs and A Baby, has tons of contests for baby/kids products and it's easy to enter (you just check out the product's web site and leave a comment back on her blog stating your favorite). I won the Picara Mei Tai baby carrier, as shown above - worth $80!. You can hold your baby in the mei tai in the front, back or side. We'll see how it works with Eli! I think it's so funny because I never got around to getting a Beco or Pikkolo baby carrier, that is similar, but not a Mei Tai style. I don't love that you tie the knots yourself, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.

On to other happier things - my parents and Gram stopped by yesterday on their way to a great gardening store in Chicago. Here they are playing with Eli:


And below are some pictures of Eli playing this morning. Motrin does amazing things... he was in a much better mood today than he was yesterday. I think his teeth are still hurting him though.

Notice he is chewing on this frog rattle in most of these pictures...

He makes me smile. I'm still debating what I can do about my neighbor situation.
What would you do?? My friend Katie suggested I ask the dog lady if we can have a "conversation" about the early morning hours issue. That way the dog lady could help come up with a solution, especially if I express how hard it is when Eli is waking at these horrible hours. She isn't as unreasonable as the garbage disposal neighbor below us (who I saw outside yesterday morning as I was taking Eli to the doctor - I said hi and she turned her back to me. She is CRAZY).

At 4:45 a.m. I was thinking, we are putting our condo on the market TODAY. Now I'm trying to be more rational :) Next winter isn't that far away, right?

7 comments:

The Yosts said...

Congrats on winning! I should enter contests :)

As for the dog - shoot it. JK! I don't have any good advice in that area.

Sarah S said...

Sorry to say this Stephanie, but I have definitely considered that thought (with the dog :). I'm not a gun person though.

Having this dog upstairs has made me go from being neutral on dogs to really, really disliking them. Sorry dog lovers...

Aaron and Emily said...

Hm, Aaron gets up at 4:30. Sad, huh.

My friend has a dog, and was unfortunate enough to have someone call police on her dog (it turns out it was a Different neighbor dog making the noise). But she still had to make sure her dog didn't bark, as a noise ordinance law. So she bough a shock collar and trained him in less than a week to not bark. Although, I guess it's the running around that wakes Eli? Well, you could always call the cops on her. !

Mostess Mommy said...

Sarah, I am so sorry! At least you won something to make your day better! If you want, you and Eli can come and live with us, we have plenty of room! Quinton doesn't wake up until 7:30 am so he could train Eli to sleep in! The we could take pictures and scrap all day!

Forget dealing with the wacko neighbors! Come live with the wacko Harkers!

Kerstin said...

My neighbor has a Mai Tei and LOVES it and seriously she is the best source because she has every baby carrier invented and this one has been her favorite. I am interested to see what you think.

Marci said...

Congrats on the contest win - and what a cool prize to win too! I don't know how you survive getting up that early everyday - I would have put my house on the market already! I need my sleep :-)! You'll have to let us know if you decide to have a talk with her!

Christina Huling said...

Congrats on the win! That's a cute carrier. I'm so sorry about your neighbors! I can't imagine how awkward that must be, there's got to be something that can be done? An anonymous complaint? Do you have an HOA? I hope it gets better soon! I would be so grouchy! Is Eli walking yet?