HELP!

Ok, anyone with toddler experience, I need your help. I mentioned before that Oliver has been having a hard time sleeping. I think I have reached the end of my rope with it. I was fine with sitting in there for a little while until he was asleep, but tonight he wanted me to rock him to sleep. He finally fell asleep and I put him in his crib and he woke up and cried all over again. So, I left the room and told him I'd be back (hoping that he would fall asleep in the meantime...) and he cried and screamed so loud that he scared Morgan. It was definitely a angry scream rather than a scared or sad one, so I finally threatened to spank him if he keeps it up. It is so hard to tell if this is a naughty, power struggle thing or if he is genuinely scared. I don't want to punish him for being afraid, but I do want to punish him for being demanding and controlling and down right naughty. Last night was awful, too. I went out for a while and he was asleep, thankfully, when I got home, but he woke up at about midnight and ended up in our bed at 1:30 and then he and I ended up on the couch at about 2:oo and he was awake at 6!!! Not only could I not leave him alone, but he had to be physically touching me somehow in order to fall asleep. I was hoping this would be a quick phase because of the no-binky transition, but it is seeming like more. Should I call the doctor? Is she going to just tell me that it is a phase and it will pass and I should just let him cry it out? Because that is tough when he shares a room with a peacefully sleeping baby.
He went through this before when Morgan was an infant. I actually ended up sleeping on the floor in his room a few times. It was almost exactly the same thing, now that I think about it, I would stay in there until I was sure he was asleep and then I would tip toe out and as soon as I did that he would wake up and scream hysterically.
From a purely selfish standpoint, I am getting so annoyed at "wasting" my whole evening sitting in there waiting for him to fall asleep. (I put it in quotes, because I know in the long run, it is not a waste - it's my job for right now.) I can't really get anything accomplished around the house unless I want to stay up super late or get up super early before the kids do. I also don't want to spend any free minute that I do have working on housework. I think I would go crazy. Which is why I'm blogging right now instead of finishing up the dishes or cleaning up the last few toys laying around.
So, faithful readers, what is your advice???

New Profile Picture

It has been brought to my attention that there are no family pictures on this blog. So, my mission is to get a nice family photo of us at some point soon. Until then, I give you this:

What Do I Do With Myself?

The children are gone with Grammie for the morning... where do I begin? I have quite a list of to-do's for the morning before I head to work. Here they are in order:
1. Write a real blog. It's been a while.
2. Switch summer and winter clothes and try to bring as many bins as possible back over to our inconvenient-yet-large-so-it's-worth-it storage closet.
3. Get a hair cut. Oh man, I am psyched for this one. I think I'm going to go pretty short. I'm ready for a change.
4. Head over to my parents' house to finish the laundry and watch some TV (shhh...don't tell Joel!) before I go to work.
I also should do the dishes and clean the bathroom and wash the kitchen floor, but who has time for that???
I've been neglecting all my chores recently, including blogging, because I have not really had much of a break these days. I mentioned in my last entry that Oliver doesn't have his binky anymore. Well, since then, he doesn't have a nap anymore either. Ugh, it is almost worth giving him his binky back just for those few hours of sanity. Plus, he is miserable by 3:00. He's a smart little bugger, too. Says he'll nap if he can have his binky. But, we've already made the break and I don't want to do it all over again. He's also been giving me a hard time at night going to bed. He doesn't want to be alone anymore so I have to sit in his room and read until he goes to sleep. Actually, that has been kind of nice. I get to do my bible study homework in peace while they fall asleep. It forces me to get it done. (Way to see the bright side, Becka!)
So, that has been my life in a nutshell these days. Morgan has been napping and sleeping just fine. Thank goodness, because if it was both of them....whew.
Oh, here's a funny thing Ollie said the other night: He was telling me that I needed to sleep in his room and that he was going to make me a new bed in there. So I told him I needed to go and sleep with Daddy so he wouldn't be lonely. Of course Oliver asked why so I told him that I belong to Daddy, too, and that Oliver needs to share me with him and with Morgan. Then Oliver said, "Me get Daddy a new Mommy." Sorry, bud, it doesn't work that way!

What Kind Of Idiot Flushes Her Cell Phone Down the Toilet?

Umm...yeah that would be me. I was over at my parents' house on Saturday visiting with some family friends from New Zealand. I went to the bathroom accompanied by my two little monkeys, as usual. Now that Oliver can open doors, having him in the bathroom with me is rough. He usually tries to open it while I am mid-pee. So, as I was going, he started opening the door, so I jumped up, flushed the toilet and pulled up my pants all at once. All of a sudden, my cell phone flew out of my pocket and into the toilet and instantly disappeared into the abyss like a little silver poop. The timing was just perfect. I had no chance of even trying to grab it. So, since my dad is out of the country at the moment, we called one of his friends from church who is pretty handy and he came over and took the toilet off and was able to dislodge my phone from the bend in the pipe. We took it apart and blow dried it and when I tried it this morning it worked!!! The display is a little messed up, but I made a call! Ahhh... the wonders of technology. I'm going to go and disinfect it now.


PS. No more binky for Oliver. That will be the next entry.