Broken Paci - Day ??

Can I admit something to you?

I'd nearly forgotten we were getting rid of the paci. It hasn't been as rough the last few days.

Lets backtrack. Last week, Edward wasn't sleeping. And we had the occasional meltdown.

I'd planned to snip off more on Wed. But that morning, while we were having playgroup at our house, Edward spiked a high fever. I couldn't bring myself to make life any harder for him while he was already so miserable. So snipping was put off.

On the plus side, the fever made him so lethargic that he caught up on his sleep. (I have to admit that I chose to not medicate him and let the fever run its course specifically so that he would get some rest. Two days of intermittent high temps did the trick.) He has continued to nap just fine ever since. My sleeper is back!

How did the next cut go? Much more smoothly. The cut pacis have an edge that makes it hard to suck on, so Edward had already switched to simply holding it in his mouth. Cutting off more made it feel different, but he didn't have to break the sucking habit again.

For the last several days, Edward has used the pacis less and less. Except for when he goes to bed, he rarely has one in his mouth. And I'm making a point of redirecting his attention when he does ask for one.

All in all, I think it's going really well and hasn't been the ordeal I expected. I think that the next cut might be when we talk to him about throwing them out.

(Thanks Staci for reminding me to update!)

Broken Paci - Day 5

It hasn't been easy. But it also hasn't been horrible.

During the day, he'll occasionally carry one around to chew on or hold on the side of his mouth. It seems that he has a harder time talking with the broken paci in his mouth, so he's pulling it out to talk. Frequently, he puts it down and forgets about it.

That's the good stuff.

The bad?

He has yet to nap since I cut the pacis. Bedtimes involve lots of crying. But because he hasn't napped, a little snuggling or hand holding puts him right out.

Oh, and we did have an incident when he found an undamaged paci. I managed to distract him with a snack and cut it, but when nap time rolled around and he couldn't find it again, all hell broke loose. We have now thoroughly checked his room and think we've found them all...

Ultimately, I think it's working. It just might be a while before our great sleeper makes a reappearance.

Broken Paci - Day 1

Constantly switching pacis to try to find one that isn't broken.

2 hours of crying before he finally fell asleep.

Hope that Edward will decide the broken pacis aren't worth it before weeks of crying drives his parents insane.

(For anyone who's curious, I broke the pacis by snipping off just the tip. If he still wants them, we'll continue to cut off a little every week until there isn't enough to suck and he throws them out. And yes, I cut them all. There is no going back...)

My Favorites

It's been much too long, I know. We're still alive and kicking. Adjusting to a new house, a new work schedule, and my growing, changing boys has been a bit much for me. I'm getting there. Slowly.

Because they make me smile, I thought I'd share a few of my current favorite things.

1. Edwardese. Edward has stopped saying "no." He says "I guess not." On occasions we'll even get an "I guess.......yes." There's also "What chu talk'n 'bout!" And the ever classic "I'm all fine."

2. Ethan's bum. That boy can shake it! He discovered the joy of wiggling his bum a few weeks ago. (I think they did the chicken dance at school.) Ever since, he's become a dancing fiend and can shake that thang with the best of 'em. He'll even make up his own little raps to dance to. Totally cracks me up.

3. A clean kitchen. Now this is not something I have often. But when I do, it's inspiring! I just want to pull out a cutting board or mixing bowls or dust that long counter with flour and start kneading something. The layout of this kitchen makes it hard to keep tidy. But I'm pushing hard to create better habits for all of us. Because I love to be inspired to cook!

4. Edward's PJs. I'm sure I've mentioned Edward's tag obsession before. His taggies are his constant companions. It's evolved to be only clothing tags. His favorites are the ones in his pajamas. Especially the ones in the back of his pajama pants or shorts. BUT, Edward's favorite pajamas to wear are the full length footie ones. No lower-back tag on those. Edward's solution? Layers! He gets his footie pj's with a pair of shorts to provide a tag. All he needs is a cape and he'd make a great superman!

5. Ethan Drawing. Drawing has become an integral part of Ethan's life. He spends a huge portion of every day sitting at the craft table drawing us pictures. A few months ago, his drawings were simple (and unrecognizable) sketches of the things around our house. He's evolved to more intricate and creative works involving our family as books on a shelf, or racetracks with water hazards and short-cuts, or a bird in a cage, in a tree house, supported by several trees reaching over our house. We can barely bring ourselves to even put them in the mail to share. So grandparents, come visit and see Ethan's growing collection of work!

NEVER!

Edward after climbing onto a dining room chair: "No booster seat!! Hahahahaha." (With a fist pump) "NEVER!"

Love your Brother?

Not at my house. As much as my boys talk about loving each other, the obvious truth is that they'd LOVE to be only children.

Ethan can't wait for Edward's nap so that he can get out big boys toys or have mom all to himself. And Edward, when we're dropping Ethan off at preschool, literally drags me back to the car so that he can have the toys all to himself.

Maybe what we need is two toy rooms!

All joking aside, they do love each other and they show it in lots of ways. Playing together is just not one of them.

Mom Math

1 Ignored dirty diaper on an otherwise naked boy

+

1 Boy who likes to play with the tag in the back of his pants

=

2 Messy hands waving a gross paci at mom while the boy spits at the yucky taste

+

1 Mom on a hunt to discover where else the boy wiped his hands

+

Poop!

Edward did it! On the potty! We're just so proud.

I should mention that the way it happened is not repeatable. And we have no expectations of it happening again in the near future. But it was still great!

On my mind

1. Ethan can sound out and write all of his letters now. So instead of "spelling" by yelling out a stream of random letters, he's working hard to hear each of the letters in the correct order. I love that he works so hard! He's even managing to read a few short words by sounding out the letters!

2. Edward backed off on wanting to use the potty for a while. But the interest seems to be back. He saw a potty at Target last week and fell in love. (It's frog shaped.) He's been sitting on it multiple times every day. No success yet, but the dry diapers all day and the overfull ones at night indicate that he's learning some control. We'll get there.

3. Please don't tell me how thin I look. I'm very aware. My pants are hanging off of me and all the baby weight has disappeared. (Wish the extra skin would too!) Even my face is thinner. This was not an intentional weight loss. It was achieved by a combination of stress, too little sleep, frequently eating only one real meal a day, and lots of Dr. Pepper to keep the blood sugar up and the headaches at bay. I am looking forward to gaining some weight back in Dec. Then losing it in a much more healthy manner.

4. So happy for John. He's loving his new job. It's exactly the type of growth opportunity he was looking for, and they need him there so badly. He jumped right in, meeting with people to figure out what he needed to learn, interviewing someone to do their SEO, and scheduling a business trip to get some hands on experience. Nine months was worth the wait!

5. Think I might attempt to fold the many, many loads of laundry and clean a bathroom or two before having to go to work. Better get started...

Laughing Through Life

After returning from our big outing today (a ten minute trip to drop off school paperwork for the dr to sign), it occured to me that life has been a little boring.

So I thought I'd share a few glimpses of my boys that made me laugh or smile this last week.

* Edward dumping water on the living room rug and then dancing as he splashed in it. (This was while swearing under my breath that he'd figured out how to make yet another kind of sippy cup leak.)

* Ethan rolling his eyes at me for singing along to a "Word World" song. ("You can never have too many OO's" is a catchy song! And I know mom. It's payback time.)

* Edward singing along to the same song a few minutes later. Doodly-oo is such a fun word to hear from his little mouth.

* Ethan saying all morning that he was tired and should probably take a nap. (I had a yeah-right kind of laugh at this one. He didn't nap, but he did lay on his bed and read books for over an hour.)

* Edward's run. It's hilarious.

* Ethan's excitement when I showed him how to use a Magic Eraser to clean up Edward's wayward coloring.

* Edward's imitation of his brother when I leave for work. Even if I've already said good-bye to him, if Ethan gets a bigger hug or a real kiss, Edward comes over for the same. Gotta love those little arms giving hugs and the slobbery kisses.

Not very exciting. But these boys are constantly reminding me why I'm pushing through. Give me a few of those moments a day and it's all worth it.

Ant Migration

We're watching this out the back door today.



The fire ants that live in our walls are migrating across the patio. They're moving thousands of eggs to a new mound (or several) in the yard. Cool to watch. Scary because I discovered them when letting Edward out in the backyard to play.

How do we feel about having new fire ant mounds in our yard? We're thrilled. These ants have been in our walls since we moved in over a year ago. Once we realized it, we sprayed the interior walls to keep them away from us. As long as they went outside for their food and left us alone, we kept a tense peace with them.

Now, once they've moved out their eggs, we can spray the exterior of the house and keep them from coming back in. And a through walk of the yard will reveal the mounds and we can treat those too.

Maybe, for a few days at least, we can call our house allergen free!

19 months old and Counting

We joke about how smart our kids are, but this is getting ridiculous.

Exciting Week

In the last week we've:

- Visited family in San Antonio
- Played lots with Grandma J
- Started swim lessons for Ethan
- Rearranged the ENTIRE house (The beds and most of the dressers are in the same places. Not much else.)
- Braved a fire-ant attack on Edward's feet that caused a major allergic reaction
- And added our first Epi-pen to the diaper bag for the next time the fire ants are too interesting to stay away from

Plus all the regular stuff. Thanks Grandma J for all the help!

No More Curls

John finally decided that Edward was going to get a haircut. He was smart enough to tell me before he did it, or I would have refused to speak to him for a week!

I miss the curls. A lot. They cut off the last of his babyness!

John posted video of before, during, and after on his blog so that you can see my baby turn into a toddler. Check it out!

Talk? On Tape? No Way

These are a few of our attempts to get Edward to talk on tape. None were very successful. I will recommend that you turn up the volume to hear the few words he does say.

Watch how well our son has learned to shoot a "gun"! Sounds and everything! We're so proud.


I don't acknowledge it in the video, but Edward says "You're Welcome" for no apparent reason.


Here's the video where all the animals say "moo". I usually don't have to prompt him like this, but at least it shows his silly personality. If you listen closely after he decides to ignore me, he says "animal goes in there" twice and then gives them an order to "play." And for the grandparents, be sure to watch to the very end!

The Things We Teach Our Boys

First, we seem to be encouraging Edward to do gross things. You can't see it very well on the video, but that boy's finger disappears up past his fingernail...



And second, Ethan has finally gotten his first real bike! Thanks Great-Grandpa! With very little coaching from us, he took off and loved every second of it.



More videos to come! (Thanks to John who uploaded them ;)

Talking Video - Not Happening

I've been trying to get video of Edward talking. He narrates his life for us normally. But try to record it and the words slow to a trickle. Only grandparents, and really bored ones at that, would like the videos we've managed.

The biggest problem is that if you say a word, like "walk" or "swimming", he immediately wants to do it and runs off. I tried sitting him down with his farm animals, but after naming each one, he grinned and insisted that they all "moo". But only until I put the camera down. Then they went back to their usual noises. Prankster.

So we'll keep trying. But the only way I can guarantee you'll hear Edward's cute narration is for you to come visit!

Edward Introduces Time Out

Edward bit me today. It was accidental, but it really hurt. So I very firmly told him "NO BITING!" and put him on the floor. How does my sixteen month old react? Does he throw a tantrum? Does he get sad little tears? No way. He stood up and walked very deliberately to Ethan's time-out spot.

After the few seconds it took me to realize what had just happened, I walked over and gave him the after time-out talk. You know. "I love you, but can't blah blah blah." He jumped up and gave me a big hug. Just like Ethan has to be able to do before he can leave time-out. Then he walked away like everything was all better.

Freaky.

This boy scares me a little. Time-outs at 16 months?? I'm not sure I'm ready to raise this child.

Naptime Sweetness

Edward rarely resembles my sweet baby anymore. He is working hard at developing his tantrum skills. Usually, I get sick of him and decide to put him down for an early nap.

The instant his door closes, the screaming stops. I hear "On, on!" Edward helps me turn on his night-light and white noise machine. Then he snuggles in while we sit down. I sing his song while my adorable boy tells me where my nose, eyes, mouth, ears, and head are. After I lay him down, I always say the same things. Today, I heard them before I could open my mouth. "Goo-nie. Uv-oo. Byeeee!"

It was so hard to not go back and give him a big hug. But I really needed those two hours without screaming, yelling, and hitting. So I just smiled as I left.

I'm glad that I still have the naptime sweetness to remind me how much I love this guy.

Talking over Ice Cream

Ethan's directorial debut!



John reciprocated. (Please ignore the mess in the background. And Ethan's horribly long hair. It's been cut. But not Edward's. I'm not ready to give up the curls.)



And because I still can't believe it, this is how John let Edward eat his dinner a few weeks ago.