Chuckit

First, I just got up. 6 am! Hopefully this can continue. And Hannah has yet to make a peep. I feel so rested.

So yesterday the boys were in the kitchen and James was making a big commotion so I shouted from the other room.

Me: What are you doing?
James: Getting some juice you chuckit.
Matthias: You call mom chuckit. No way.
James: Don't say that. No way is a bad word.

My two favorite parts of this exchange are 1) that is probably the most articulate sentence I have ever heard Matthias utter and 2) no way is bad but calling your mom a chuckit (whatever that is) is okay? Hmmm. I just ignored the whole exchange after my initial question. Honestly.

Here's to a good night's rest

Thanks for all your ideas and advice! We have a couple we're going to implement and see what works. Hopefully Matthias will start letting everyone sleep.

James slept until 8 this morning when we moved him into our room after Matthias woke up at 4:20. Clearly James is not getting enough sleep and needs more. He doesn't nap and hasn't for about a year and a half. He goes to bed fine at 7 and would sleep until 7 if left alone. Matthias goes to bed and takes about 30 minutes to fall asleep...about 7:30. He does nap, but he needs it still. Plus every sleep book/article I have ever read says sleep begets sleep and taking away naps too early will just make night time sleep worse. And Matthias is still tired at night, he has no problems going to sleep and bed time is an easy process around here. He just gets up too early. (Taylor regularly takes 30 minutes to fall asleep too.) And later bed times don't work. We've tried for weeks at a time. No good.

I think the main problem was moving him to a bed too early (15 months), but he was leaping over the side of the crib. Very dangerous. We've tried locking him in, but it's no match for our little jail breaker. He's broken child proof handles and can unlock locked doors from the inside. Maybe we could install a deadbolt?

Hopefully we can get something to keep Matthias in bed until 6. We'll keep you posted!

Help!

Remember here when I said "we are actually slowing adjusting to the early wake up time"?? Remember that? That was a lie. An optimistic lie.

We're not adjusting and we're slowing falling apart. Taylor is trying to recover from major surgery, I'm trying to recover from caring for a newborn. We've had an endless stream of visitors interrupting our precarious sleep pattern. A word here meaning depending on the will or pleasure of another. And it's really wearing down on us. Some mornings I wake up crying because I have to wait at least 14 more hours before I can go back to bed and I'm exhausted!

I really just don't know what to do. Matthias is the main culprit, but when we remove James from the room he just unlocks the door and lets Matt out. Plus Matthias has recently taken to removing his own diaper. Taylor found him standing in front of the toilet this morning at 5:20 with his diaper around his ankles trying to pee. Unfortunately he was a bit too short...

But the kid will not potty train. I've tried. He's chosen to not be ready and I'm of the mindset of waiting until they're ready to avoid cleaning up urine all day. I have enough to keep me occupied without adding unnecessary extras.

So keeping him in his room is really not an option unless we want a big, unsanitary mess. I've thought about putting a clock in there and telling them they cannot exit until 6 am. But really how would I enforce that? I've found that I really have nothing on my children. They rarely play with toys and are fine without. So I can't threaten to take their toys away. All they do all day is run around pretending to be knights, jedis, pirates, etc. And props are nice, but not essential. What am I going to do, take away their imaginations?

We don't watch tv. James watches a dvd every couple days or so, but since he will go sometimes 3 or 4 days without watching anything that doesn't really seem an effective punishment. Four days after the offense I say, "oh you want to watch a movie? well remember last Thursday? you came out of your room at 5:40 so not going to happen." Riiight.

Um, we don't really play with friends. Maybe once or twice a week. I'm just not sure what I could effectively withhold. Outside of running around slaying bad guys, reading is our main source of entertainment. We read for an hour or more a day. But Taylor and I just don't see that as an option. Reading is like religion to us. It's like telling the boys they can't pray. Maybe we can find a lion's den? That should keep 'em in bed.

Any ideas for keeping them in bed until 6 am? I think I can do 6. That half hour really does make a difference.

(and with a whopping high temperature of 54 my day should really be complete)

The little one said roll over, roll over

Taylor is getting upset that I have not yet posted this video. He did an excellent job capturing the event! This was only the second roll ever.



May 24, 2009. 3 months, 4 days old.

Hannah never really got much tummy time thus far as she is held ALL the time. Which is my doing not hers. Because she's just so cute and cuddly. So I lug her with me everywhere I go. Because soon she'll want to run around and squirm away from me. So she gets held a lot.

Taylor finally put her down last week (Thursday?) to get her some tummy time. He showed her the basics and she started holding her head up like a champ. By Sunday she rolled for us.

She's pretty good now at laying next to the boys and she loves feeling like part of the action. She's getting big SO fast. I better run and pick her up again before she starts crawling away.

Matthias

Is my crazy boy! He is so silly and energetic and happy. He pops right out of bed at 5am and doesn't stop until 7 pm (except for the small nap time respite). He's always going full speed ahead and keeping us all on our toes.

This morning he said the morning prayer...

"Bless us safe from the crocodile in the river. Biting our heads off. Dinosaur."

Riiight.

We've been on our jungle/rain forest kick lately. Reading the jungle book with Matthias is tons of fun because he never believes what I tell him. Such as this is a toucan:


No, parrot. No, it's a toucan. No.

Or look a black-and-white colobus. No, monkey. Well yes, but its name is black-and-white colobus. No, monkey.

Cool, it's an Indian pangolin. No, dragon.

Why don't you just read the book to me?

He is our big ham and always into mischief. Although he will follow James anywhere and believe everything he says. My favorite is when he says something and James tells him "No, it's..." and Matthias says, "Oh."


Lately he has decided to change his own diaper when he is poopy if we aren't quick enough. One morning he came in to tell me he was poopy. I said I would be right down. A few minutes later he told me again. "I'm getting up. I'll be right there." Next time I open my eyes he's standing next to my bed holding his poopy diaper in his hands. A nice wet, gooey one. Carried all the way from down stairs up to my room. Yuck!

Matthias loves being a big brother and mostly thinks it is quite hilarious. He is constantly 'showering' Hannah with toys or covering her with blankets. And then laughing hysterically. So I always know when he's being naughty. But he is a great helper always fetching diapers and sometimes helping to feed if we get desperate!



Matthias could color for hours, and sometimes does. It's basically the only way to get him to hold still. He loves coloring and frequently comes home from nursery with several handouts. They make extra copies just for him! His fine motor skills have always been phenomenal. (see!)

He also is very good at puzzles and I Spy books. Something in his brain just connects so well with these activities and he really enjoys them. We have several 24 piece puzzles that he loves to do.


He takes so much energy and patience, but man is he cute! We love this little man to pieces! Everyday he is so sweet and fun and happy. He makes me laugh and shows me how to love life!

Preschool was about Rain Forests today...

Attempting to convince Taylor to take me here.

Monteverde Cloud Forest

James Speak & Matthias Chatter

James: Drive fast. As fast as you can so the polices don't get you. Drive medium. (meaning drive as fast as it's legal, not as fast as possible to get away...)


Me: Next week is the last week of your dinosaur class. Then you start swim lessons and then we go to Utah. A few weeks after we get home you'll start preschool.
James: And then Kindergarten.
(whoa, let's not get too ahead of ourselves)


Me: I can't do it with one hand (I was feeding Hannah)
Matthias: Three hands.
Wouldn't that be nice sometimes?