Our son has made some great strides the last 3 nights, and he is about to reach a monumental accomplishment. He has made it through the last 3 nights without having any accidents, and if he goes for 2 more, he will graduate to big boy pants, YEAH! He has done this all on his own, and he is very proud of himself (as are we). He is the last one to make the transition, so once he is done, we can say bye bye to pull ups in the house! Happy Days are almost here!
OK, so I am starting to feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day. It was another early morning for me as I sprinted down the hallway into the girls' room to try and quiet Maris down. She was sitting up in her bed, crying and screaming for Mommy. She woke her sister up, who was asleep in the next bed (had she not, I would have been worried that Lillian may have a hearing problem, because Maris sounds like a plane taking off, but I digress). I guess by now it is to be expected that Lillian would be woken up, but I was really trying to get to her before she woke up Wilson. Mission accomplished, I had quited her before she was able to wake up the ENTIRE house.
I just do not know what is going on here, we have tried putting them to bed later in hopes that they would sleep in (by the way, does not work). We have even tried putting them to bed earlier thinking that maybe they are not getting enough sleep (this does not work either). I guess we should come to grips with the fact that this is the time that she is going to get up (at least for now until I can figure something else out or she just outgrows it).
In other news, I took the kids to see Santa on Saturday. This was the second time in their life that they have physically seen him and let me tell you it was a much better experience than last year! Last year they cried the whole time, this time, they kept telling Santa what they wanted for Christmas. All in all, they enjoyed it, but we will most likely take them again since the pictures I took did not turn out as well as I would have liked (yes, we have become one of those families that pimps out the kid pictures when we can, we are going to use them for Christmas cards).
So the past several nights, Maris has been pulling this little stunt right after we put the kids down to bed. She is quietly getting out of her bed and wondering around the house. I have found her in her brother's bathroom, our bathroom, sitting at the top of the stairs, downstairs in the play room, and last night after the 4th time of getting out of bed, I found her standing in the middle of the kitchen (of all places). When I asked her what she was doing, she said that she wanted to see Mommy. This is her way of saying that she is not tired and she does not want to go to bed. Every time I find her around the house, this is the answer that I get.
I do not know what to do, I have tried asking her to be a big girl and stay in bed for Daddy. She tells me that she will be a big girl and stay in bed for me, and then 5 minutes later I find her wandering around the house. I have taken an even more subtle approach of just picking her up and kissing her and telling her I love her an put her back to bed. I have also told her that if she gets out of bed again I will shut the door (except she knows how to open it up). The only thing that seems to work (and I do not like having to do this) is telling her that if she gets out of bed again she is going to get a panking (that is what she calls it). This does seem to work, but Christine and I do not like it.
What to do, what to do........
WOW, it is already 5 days after Turkey day, it is hard to believe that it came and went that fast! We had a great Thanksgiving this year, we enjoyed some good cooking by Christine's mom at her house (it would have been impossible for us to have it at our house, considering our kitchen is out of commission still :-( ). The kids really enjoyed themselves, they got to eat at the big kid table with their GiGi, what a treat!
I was home for 4 days with the family and got to spend quality time with everyone. We all went to Skyline drive on Saturday to spread my Grandmother's ashes (she passed away back in June). We spread them in the same spot (at least we think it was) that we spread my Grandfather's 16 years earlier. The kids did really well, they all spread some of her ashes. I know that they are too young to understand what we were doing, but for some strange reason, I think they may have understood some. I am so proud of them, sometimes I think they are much older than what they really are.
There was no work done on the kitchen during the holiday, but Christine's dad was back to work yesterday and made some serious progress. Hopefully it will not be too much longer until we are finished!
OK, this early morning wake up call from the girls has got to stop! We are reaching out wits end with this, and do not know what to do. I think their internal clock is set for 5:50 a.m., because that is the exact time the last 2 mornings that the girls have woken up.
I had dismissed this early morning wake up last week as a passing phase since they were sick, but I am beginning to quickly realize that it had nothing to do with that. They just are ready to get up and Christine and I are clearly not ready for them to be up!
Needless to say, they were up for good this morning around 6:15 ish and so was their brother. We had all 3 of them in bed with us, we tried to go back to sleep, they were watching whatever it is that comes on Nickelodeon at that hour (I think it was Stanley or something like that, I was trying not to pay attention). Anyhow, I was up at 6:50 and Christine was not too far behind. While I was downstairs eating breakfast, she was in the shower and I heard Maris crying (more like crying wolf), so I decided to go upstairs to see what the problem was. I think she was crying becuase Lillian had something that she wanted, of which was something that neither should have had. They all had gone into our bathroom while Christine was in the shower and they had decided to take a few things off the counter and take it back to our bed to play. They had a medicine dispenser and a bottle of medicine (luckily this bottle had a better childproof cap than the one yesterday). I quickly grabbed their new "toys" from them and put them back in the bathroom. I do not know what is going on right now, but they really want to get their little paws on anything that they are not supposed to.
Oh, the joys of the proverbial "terrible twos"!
So as it has been of late, the kids were up before the sun came up. Normally, the routine is jump out of bed, tell them quietly to go back to bed until the sun rises, and then back to sleep for me (or Christine, whoever gets up with them). This morning, the girls were up at 5:50 a.m. I had planned on getting up at 6:15 to run, so I was starting to wake up at this time anyways. I told them to get back to bed, and at 6:15 they were back in the room. Needless to say, their brother was not too far behind them :-). They were up for good this time, and Christine turned the TV on for them while I was out running and it was back to sleep for her.
Fast forward, I am leaving for work (Christine has a pounding headache) and the kids are still watching TV. She manages to fall back to sleep and the kids manage to quietly (which is a new thing for them, nothing ever used to be quite) slip out of the bedroom and headed downstairs. At 8:30 ish, Christine's dad was over (working on remodeling the kitchen, long story) and he found the kids in the dining room eating bananas and vitamins. How 3 2.5 year olds managed to open a vitamin bottle that is supposed to be child proof is beyond me! Christine called the doctor and everything is OK, they were concerned about iron intake, but luckily for us, the L'il Critters Gummy Vites do not contain any iron, phew!
Cannot wait to see what tomorrow brings!
