Cribless

I knew this day was coming. My boys are getting older. They're definitely not babies anymore. I was once again reminded of this over the last two weeks, and it really hit yesterday morning.

Yes. That is Nathan, out of his crib and into his toddler ("big boy") bed. It all started about two weeks ago. We've spent the last two weeks in the U.P. and were staying at my parents' house. At night, Nathan, who up until that point had only slept in his crib, slept in a Pack-N'-Play, since he was used to having "walls" around him. The first night was easy. We had been in the car all day and were exhausted. He fell right to sleep. However, by the second night there, he had discovered that the "walls" were no match for him. I put him to bed the second night and joining my parents in the living room. Within five minutes I heard one of the bedroom doors open. I just thought it was Tyler coming back out so I didn't jump out of my chair right away. Then came the sound of tiny little footsteps. Hmmm, those are kind of small, even for Tyler, I thought. And then, there he was. Little Nathan with the biggest smile on his face. I don't think he had ever felt more proud of himself. Oh Boy. At least that's what I said out loud.

And there it began. I spent the next two weeks trying everything I could to keep him in the Pack-N'-Play. Everything. One day, I spent three hours with him trying to get him to take a nap, with no success. He didn't nap that day, as well as two other days while we were there. Once he was asleep, he was fine. But he had to wear himself (and me!) down to complete exhaustion before he would finally collapse in his bed.

To him, it was all a big game. Especially with me. My mom could do a pretty fair job getting him down, and Mike could do even better. But with me, he had way too much fun. Saying "I see you!" every time he opened the door. Waiting for me to put him back in his bed and then running and jumping back in by himself. Frustrating and exhausting. Those are the only words I have for that part of my last two weeks.

I was still holding out some form of hope though. He had never tried to climb out of his crib at home, and it was quite a bit taller than the Pack-N'-Play, so I thought if I could make it through those two weeks and get back home, he'd be back to sleeping in his crib, and I'd go back to being able to shower in the morning before he woke up.

WRONG. On our first night back home, I was cautiously optimistic. I set him down in his crib, expecting him to pop back up like a prarie dog, laugh, and try to climb out. Instead he grabbed his blanket, curled up, stuck his thumb in his mouth and settled in. I checked on him a few minutes later and he was asleep. Whew! Maybe I got lucky after all...

The next morning - yesterday morning - I heard him through the baby monitor. "Get out of bed" he said. Tyler was already upstairs with me, so I slowly got motivated and ready to get him up. Well, I guess I didn't move fast enough because just a few minutes after he first woke up, I heard the sound of a creaking door through the monitor. Since his is the only door in the house that creaks, I knew exactly what had just happened. By the time I got to the top of the stairs, there was little Nathan waiting for me.

Yep. Right then I knew that the crib had to go. It made me sad, not only because it means my little boy is growing up, but when am I ever going to shower again????

So reluctantly, yesterday afternoon Mike and I wheeled the crib out of his room and I replaced it with the toddler bed, which I had recently moved out into the garage with the hope of storing it out there until at least January. No such luck.

There is another element to this story. Not only did we give up the crib yesterday, but Nathan has also decided over the last few weeks that his afternoon naps are optional. He's always been one to take or leave his nap, unlike his big brother who no one wants to be around unless he sleeps for at least an hour in the afternoon. If Nathan skipped his nap, which he rarely did, it was no big deal. Now, and this started happening once or twice a week even before we went on vacation, he's decided for the most part that he doesn't want to nap anymore. And he has had more control over that over the last few weeks since he could climb out of his bed whenever he didn't want to be there. And he retains that control now that he's in his big boy bed.

When I started this post, I had finally convinced Nathan to stay in his room (after spending 20 minutes putting him back in his bed and closing the door) though he was playing with one of his noisy toys. Now that I'm at this point in the post, the noise has stopped and I think he might finally be asleep. Whew!

Last night - his first night in his "big boy bed"- went GREAT. I gave him his "five minutes," something I started with Tyler about a year ago, told him that it was time for him to go to sleep, and closed the door. He called for me two or three times, but he never got out of bed, and in fact he went right to sleep. Even more surprising is that he slept all the way through to just after 7:00 this morning without getting out of his bed once. YES!! I know that not all nights will be that easy, but we're off to a great start so far.

Now if I can only figure out a way to hang on to those naps for at least another 6 months. HE may be ready to give them up, but I'm NOT!!

Fire Trucks and Crackers From Grandpa

I continue to be amazed each and every day with Nathan's speech development. At age two years and three months, we can carry on complete, almost "adult" conversations with him. He is months ahead of where Tyler was at that age, and I attribute that to the fact that Nathan has an older brother to learn from. And believe me, Tyler is teaching him a lot...

I have many personal favorites. Among them is the word "stuckin." As in "The car is stuckin the mud." He'll say "Help! It's stuckin!" Too cute.

Matt's girlfriend's name, at least to Nathan, is "Dustine." Priceless.

In response to a question like, "Would you like a glass of water?" Nathan replies, "Yah." Definitely a boy with two Yoopers for parents.

He has also learned our current President's name: (a story for an entirely separate blog entry...) "Racko Bama." I love it.

There is one that rises above all the rest for me. It stems from a bit of a speech "impediment" of sorts that he has developed. It's way too early for me to have any kind of concerns about it, and it provides so many laughs for me every day. Indeed, it never gets old for me. I guess it says wonders about my actual mental age.... maybe....

Nathan has a hard time correctly saying any word whose second letter is an "r." Words that begin with "Gr" or "Tr" or "Cr", etc. He begins all of those words with an "Fr" sound, and sometimes only with an "F." The day that he asked "Frandpa" for more "Frackers," I nearly wet my pants.

Even more hilarious, though sometimes a bit embarrassing depending on where we are, is his attempt at talking about his favorite things. Cars and trucks. I'll never forget the first time I heard his interesting attempt at the word "truck."

We were riding in the car, and we pulled up alongside an 18-wheeler.

"Mommy, look! Truck!"

Unfortunately, it didn't all come out exactly like that. Yes, he took off the "tr," and replaced it with "f." After realizing what he meant, remembering his issues with some sounds, I laughed hysterically. I thought it might be a one-time error, and tried to show him how to say it correctly. It didn't work. And there it began.

Nathan loves all kind of trucks, and is never afraid to point out every one that he sees. Big trucks. Green trucks. Daddy's truck. And my personal favorite: Fire trucks. And unfortunately, even in public, his sweet voice knows only one volume - LOUD.

There is something about hearing that word, a word that rarely escapes my lips, coming from the mouth of a two-year-old, that makes me giggle like a teenage boy. I may be thirty years old, but clearly my mind is nowhere near that level. I'm working with him on it. I promise! So far the best I can get from him is "Tr-F$#@."

He'll get it right eventually. Part of me will a bit sad when he finally does though. Until then, I am promised at least three or four hearty laughs each day when Nathan is around. Hopefully I'll have it "fixed" in time for preschool. I've got a little over a year left to enjoy it. I mean, fix it...

A Huge Milestone!

Two Sundays ago, I had reached the end of my rope. We have been working with Tyler, who is now 3 1/2 years old, for more than a year on potty training. He really was good at it - when he wanted to be. Unfortunately, most of the time he didn't want to be. The potty training issue had been the single most frustrating part of raising Tyler thusfar. I kept reminding myself that it would all come together eventually. Two Sundays ago, it finally did.

May 17th. I'd had enough. Late in the morning, I decided to give Tyler a giant shove forward into potty training. I took off his wet and dirty Pull-Up, put him in a pair of his "Big Boy Underwear," and explained to him how it was going to work from that point forward. I'll spare the details of our conversation, but the gist of it was that the days of diapers and Pull-Ups were now over. And I didn't care how many extra messes I'd have to clean up, or how many times I'd have to change wet clothes, or how many extra loads of laundry I'd have to do. This WAS going to work.

I was shocked to discover that he did GREAT that day. He told me each time he had to use the bathroom, and he didn't have one single accident. After that first day, I was cautiously optimistic. But I was not expecting as much for day two.

We are now 12 days post-diapers. To my absolute amazement, Tyler has not had one single accident during this time. I am so proud of my Big Guy!! And I am so incredibly relieved that the potty training battle is now OVER!!!

So tonight, I am going to pack up the extra Pull-Ups and tuck them away in Nathan's closet. I anticipate that by the end of this year, we'll be ready for Potty Training: The Sequel. And with the money we'll save by not buying Tyler diapers and Pull-Ups, we can now afford to send him to preschool in the Fall.

YYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Patience, Grasshopper...

One of the many things I'm trying to teach Tyler at this point in his life is the art of Patience. That's a tough one for a 3 1/2 year old. I realize this. Who am I kidding? It's a tough one sometimes for this 30 year old! But I digress...


I've actually started keeping a record of some of the more amazing, ridiculous, and/or clever things that come out of his mouth, often at the wierdest times. Kind of like my own version of "Kids Say the Darndest Things." This one definitely made the list.)


I was helping get the kids ready to leave the house for a few hours with Daddy. In an attempt to get Tyler into the bathroom to "take care of some business," I kept telling him things like "Come on Tyler, let's come in here." and "Let's go Tyler. Daddy's waiting for you." Tyler clearly heard me, but was totally ignoring me and playing with the space shuttle Santa had brought him for Christmas. After my third or fourth request, he finally stood up, walked toward where I was standing by the bathroom door, looked at me, and in total seriousness, said,

"I'm coming. Be patient."

WHAT??!!?? He caught me completely off guard with that one. I didn't even know how to respond to him at that point. The good news is that he at least knows the meaning of the word "patient." However, my next lesson clearly needs to be about "little boys with attitudes."

A New 'Do in Time For Two!

Boy, it's been awhile. So much I should share... but for now, Nathan had his first "real" haircut today. Okay, okay. Technically it wasn't his FIRST real haircut - that one happened almost a year ago. He wasn't too fond of it though, so I thought rather than hold him down kicking and screaming, I would let the haircut go as far as he would let it go (which unfortunately wasn't very far...) in order to not scar him for life from any future haircuts.

But, he is turning two in only 5 days. To say that his hair was out of control was an understatement. I decided that, even if I had to hold that boy down, no matter how long it took, he WAS going to have a decent haircut today. It was time to make him look like a little boy again, and to get rid of that curly-and-cute yet ridiculously crazy mess of hair on his head.



So, here was my last look at those curls, on our way to the "chopping block".....

And, after about 15 minutes of the best behaved almost-two-year-old who sat on my lap reading a book and giggled every time the clippers touched his scalp, it's a brand new boy!!

In my opinion, an immense improvement! (I had almost forgotten that he had ears!) A makeover fit for a two-year-old. He can now have his birthday party next weekend in style.

Potty training success? YEA!!

Finally! Tyler finally gets it! What a great way to start out the New Year.

One year and three months after he first started showing interest in using the potty, he finally gets it. He's been on the fence for the longest time. He would go (most of the time) when I asked him to, but I was beginning to get a little frustrated by the time he turned three this past October and I was still changing his diapers. So I told him on January 1st about my new plan: Ten days ago, Tyler and I started what he and I called "hard core potty training." To my surprise, there was no argument from him (again, most of the time....) and he got really excited about it. He'd been doing really well over the last week and a half, often going into the bathroom by himself throughout the day without telling us that he had to go.

So then there's yesterday. The boys and I were at our MOMS Club meeting and playgroup, and Tyler ran over to me, came right up next to my face and said, "Mommy, I have to go potty." YEAAAAA!!!!! So we found the bathroom, and he did. Yes!!

So I think I'm finally getting there! Yipeee!!!! I know I have a long way until he's completely potty trained, but hooray for big progress!!

One down, one to go.... :)

It's starting already...

Tyler did the funniest thing after dinner this evening!

We were finished with supper, and Mike and I were cleaning up the kitchen. The boys were left at the table sitting next to eachother (always a dangerous position for them to be in!) and they were talking to and playing together (laughing, tickling, etc.) I thought it was great to see, and so I stopped what I was doing just to watch them for a few seconds.

What happened next was hilarious! Tyler leaned in close to Nathan, and said, "Nathan, hit me." So Nathan did just as his brother asked. Tyler then turned around, looked at me from across the room, and said, "Mommy, Nathan just hit me!"

I had to try so hard to hold my laughter in as I explained to Tyler that Nathan hit him because he ASKED him to, and that I couldn't punish Nathan for that. But I couldn't contain myself when I had to explain it to Mike, who although he was standing next to me had not heard what just happened. KIDS!!!

Ahhh, it brought me back to another place and time. Nearly 20 years ago. I, too, have a younger brother, and we used to play that game all the time. Only I, as the OLDER sibling, was always the one in trouble, thanks to Matt the Manipulator. I called Matt after it happened and relayed the story. I blame him for tonight's incident. Who KNOWS what kind of ideas he's been filling Tyler's little head with! :-)