A Big Cat, A Big Whoopie Pie and Improvements All Around

That's probably an excessively long blog post title, but it's all I could come up with to describe the recent days here!

Friday night I successfully pulled off a surprise 30th birthday party for Nick. At the party the boys chased around a very large cat named Bubba. Tyler especially loved him. I think by the end of the night Bubba was not a fan of the boys.

For the birthday cake I decided to try something new... a GIANT Whoopie Pie! It came out beautifully and I'm willing to sell them to folks here in Kansas City (if I can figure out how to ship it I'll gladly sell it online).

In addition to a fun Friday night, we've seen some improvements this weekend in various areas of life. Here's the run down on those!

Potty Training: We've started having boys (namely Chase and Jackson) waking up dry in the mornings! The longest streak is 2 days (Chase), but most mornings one of them is dry. That gives us hope that potty training is almost complete. Woohoo!

Staying in Bed: We've seen vast improvements lately in this department. The boys still aren't perfect, but at least if they act up it's only for 10-15 minutes instead of 2 hours. I like to think this new found obedience is due to a nice mix of wearing-out activities during the day and bribery. The boys are collecting money for a mission project at church, and we've started telling them that if they're good boys and stay in bed they'll get more money to put in their Rice Bowl (the special bank they got from church). It's working pretty well!

Swimming Lessons: The boys have now completed 6 weeks of swim lessons and Nick and I are quite impressed with their new skills and bravery when it comes to water! Last week, during bath time, they kept putting their faces in the water. In class they've learned how to "walk" along the side of the pool with their hands, they've learned how to go completely under water, they've learned to use a kick board and this past weekend we saw them learning how to kick and move their arms. It's been a blast to watch! I can't wait to see how confident they are in the pool at my parent's hotel this week. Did I mention my parents are in town? Hooray for grandparent time!

Tyler (I think) trying out the kick board for the first time

Jackson under water - and Chase putting his ear in the water for some reason.

Quick Jackson! Wipe that water off your face!

Bed Time Adventures

Friday night I was hating toddler beds and the new freedom my children had. This morning I'm happy to report I no longer hate them. I'm still not totally in love with them, as we'll have to see how nap time goes today but at least I don't despise the things anymore. Here's a quick recap of how the transition went...

Friday Night: Friday night we revealed the finished rooms and new beds to the boys right at bed time. In hindsight this probably wasn't the best move. Why on earth did we think the boys would calm right down and lay in bed when they just had been shown their new room and beds? Silly parents! And so began two hours of fun....

The boys would all jump out of bed.
The boys would come running out of their room and down the hall in a line, all giggling like maniacs.
Nick and I would try our best to not laugh or smile at them and would instead quietly march them back to their beds.
Repeat. About 100 times.

Then we changed tactics and just held their door closed. This made them very unhappy, because who wants to play in a totally dark room? Eventually Nick and I took shifts monitoring the door and listening for signs of trouble (we heard "no bitey, no bitey" a couple of times and had to intervene). At one point, while sitting in the chair outside their room I heard Tyler start to sing. At first I thought "no, surely he's not singing what I think he is... where would he have learned that?", but by the 3rd time through the song I was sure I was hearing right. Tyler was singing Smelly Cat. You know, the song Pheobe on Friends sings? Smelly cat, smelly cat, what are they feeding you? I cracked up! The teacher of this wonderful song? Aunt Laura of course.

Saturday nap: Nap time is a little tougher we're learning. Even with room darkening curtains the boys can still see plenty in their room, which means it's harder for them to just chill out. Saturday's nap time antics included Jackson suddenly deciding he no longer wanted the robots blankets but instead wanted the cars and trucks that Chase had. At one point Chase was laying quietly in his bed, about to fall asleep, when Jackson got out of bed, walked over and yanked the blanket off of Chase and brought it back to his own bed. Obviously Chase was not a fan of this move.

We also heard more "no bitey, no bitey!" from the boys and I had to tell them several times to stop bugging each other. We continued to take away blankies and hold the door shut, but the lack of darkness really hurt our cause. Finally, after 2 hours, I peeked in to see Jackson and Chase both asleep and Tyler sitting on the floor between their beds. I beckoned for Tyler to come out and I put on a movie for him. After sitting on the couch with him for about 10 minutes he was out like a light.

Saturday night: Bed time chaos only lasted about 40 minutes this night, which was a huge improvement. I think the fact that they were sleep deprived from the night before and from short naps that afternoon probably helped a great deal. Jackson was ready to go to sleep right away, but Chase and Tyler wanted to explore. Chase is having freedom issues and Tyler, well once you get Tyler going he doesn't want to stop. This night involved me again sitting in a tiny chair outside their bedroom door.

Sunday nap: It took them an hour and 40 minutes this time to all fall asleep. Tyler was the biggest hold out and trouble maker in the room. Eventually it got quiet and I tip toed back to take a peek and this is what I saw...

Jackson and Chase were sound asleep in their beds, while Tyler was asleep in the corner of the room. Totally made me laugh!

Sunday night: We had ZERO issues last night! They went to bed and all stayed in bed! We heard chatting for about 30 minutes, but at least they were in their beds. Woohoo! 

Our New Routine: With the toddler beds we decided to implement a new routine at bed time. We used to put away toys, go potty, get dressed, brush teeth and then watch 10 minutes of  a movie. Now instead of a movie each of the boys gets to pick a book out and we read in their beds. They seem to really like the new routine and it gives them a little chance to lay in bed for a bit and just relax.We also have set up a clock in their room. They know when the clock says 7 in the morning they can get out of bed and during nap time they can get up when it says 3. When they keep the clock plugged in it works beautifully.

All in all? Not too terrible so far. Now we just need to get nap time figured out and I'll be one happy momma!

End of an Era

Last night when I was out with a friend I received the following text from Nick: "Jackson just visited me in the living room twice". I immediately called him and said "are you telling me he climbed out of his crib?" and Nick said "yup". After further questioning it came out that there was no loud crash like Jackson fell out, rather he climbed out quite stealthily. He also was quite proud of himself each time, as evident by the huge grin on his face whenever he ran out to greet Nick.

This morning at 6:10am I woke to "mommy potty!" and as I sat up I watched Jackson swing his leg over his crib rail, scale the side and drop to the ground (I have a clear view of part of his crib and all of Chase's crib from my bed). He walked out into the hallway and just stood there, looking down out into the dark living room. I finally hissed "Jackson!" and he ran into my room and grinned at me. Little goober!

After taking him to the potty as he requested (where he did nothing I might add), I walked him back to his room and reminded him that it wasn't morning yet because the sun still wasn't out and he needed to lay back down and be quiet. He never went back to sleep, but at least he stayed put.

So it appears we'll be making the toddler bed switch sooner than we thought. I know as soon as Chase and Tyler watch Jackson climb out a couple of times it'll be a free-for-all in there anyway, so they might has well have less of a "danger" aspect when misbehaving.

I'm really glad Nick and I decided to start collecting beds and bedding now "just in case". We had hoped to make it to this summer before doing the switch, but we also said if we made it to 2 and a half we'd just switch when they climbed out (instead of buying crib tents), and we're at that point now. I have two toddler beds and 3 bedding sets I snagged at Target a week ago, so now I just need to find a 3rd bed.


Now a question for you been there, done that moms! Remember what I said about night-time PTing not being done yet? Well, last night Tyler woke up asking to pee 3 times. He was slightly wet at 1am (his first time), so had his pull-up changed then. Then he got up at 2:30 and 4:30am, and he was dry at 8am this morning! So here's the question: is it better at this age to tell them they can only get out to go potty or say they have to call for us to help them before they get out of bed?