Stairway sleeping

As I came up for bed tonight, this is what I found:

Reminds me a bit of another little one that I know!

She was so passed out that we simply moved her back to bed.

A REAL Big Girl Bed

Mia received an early birthday present from Mommy, Daddy, Day, and Paw this month.  We decided a while back that it would be so nice if Mia were to have my old twin bed from when I was a little girl.  My parents still had it in their storage area.  So, Day and Paw offered to have it sanded and refinished for Mia's 3rd birthday.  Michael went out to get a mattress, and I went shopping for lots of pretty, girly bedding.  When the furniture guy called to let me know that the bed was ready, we knew that we would pick it up and present it to Mia before her birthday.

 

She calls it her "princess bed." 

And that, it is!  A bed fit for a princess.

Completed with tulle and bows - so girly

Luke's bed

The loft bed has arrived.  Thankfully, Grandpa is here to help put it together!

A very happy and excited boy!

Note that Mia has moved in under the desk.  She's setting up her "bed" down there.  In fact, her first reaction to the bed was to burst into tears and say, "I want it!"

So much more play space in his room now.

The Birthday Boy

How have 5 years passed since Luke was born.  It seems as though this is a huge milestone - he is no longer a baby, no longer a toddler, and no longer even a preschooler.  Now he's a boy.  A kid.  A kindergartener.  A 5 year old.  Hard to believe.

I have so much to say about Luke at 5 years old, but will save that for another post.  This one will be dedicated to his birthday, and the next to his party. 
He awoke to balloons covering the floor of his room.

He spent the majority of the day in his pjs ... his request!  In the afternoon, he had some time to play with Day while Mommy went to work.

We went out to dinner to celebrate.  Luke's restaurant requirements?  That they serve grilled cheese and dessert!

Then home for some present opening

I love this series of photos.  He has just opened the certificate that shows him what he will be getting in a few weeks from Day, Paw, Mommy, & Daddy

A lofted bed is on it's way for our boy who will soon need a desk to do homework at and who already could use some additional floor space of his own for playing.

Happy 5th Birthday to our amazing little boy!  Next up.... a robot party this weekend!!!

Saying Goodbye to the Crib

Mia has been able to get into and out of her crib since before she was one year old.  We promptly got a crib tent and have been good to go ever since.

Recently, though, Mia started leaping out of pack-n-plays when not sleeping at home.  She would help herself out of bed when sleeping at my parents' house, and then also recently when we were in Tahoe.  Add to that that she is now potty trained (still wearing a diaper at nap and night) and will often call to us from bed that she needs to potty.  Given these developments, we thought it best to transition her crib to a toddler bed and start to teach her that she needs to stay in bed when it's time to sleep.

So, this weekend Mia got a "big girl bed."  She proudly marches anyone who visits up to her room to view her new sleeping arrangement, yet when we are alone and rocking before putting her down to sleep she has asked me repeatedly to tell Daddy to bring her crib back.  I feel badly, like we took away her safe place, but I know that it is something that has to happen eventually anyways.

The good news:  other than some trouble on the first day/night, she has done really well and given us almost no trouble at all staying in her bed.  SUCH a difference from our experience with Luke.

I am hoping that we'll start to work on getting her a real big girl (twin) bed soon!

28 month update

Wow! The past two months with Luke have brought about so many amazing changes. He is such a little boy and so very sweet. Some of his most recent accomplishments:

1) PUZZLES are one of his most favorite things right now. He LOVES his 24-piece Thomas floor puzzle, and can put it together entirely on his own within a few minutes. He also has a fire truck floor puzzle which he can very nearly complete on his own.

2) Learning the ALPHABET. He has been singing his ABCs for a few months now, but just in recent weeks we have noticed that he is able to match a letter name to its shape. He loves using the alphabet game on his computer, and calling out the sponge letters in the bathtub as he puts them on the wall. He is also able to identify his name now and verbally spell it out. Pretty amazing how much he is learning every minute of every day!

Letter naming in the tub

3) Sleeping in his BIG BOY BED. He took to his new bed with no problems at all. In fact, I think that he is actually sleeping better, and seems just thrilled with it.

Sleeping well with our "other" little boy - Linus, who apparently thinks he deserves a big boy bed as well!

4) Saying goodbye to the PACIFIER. Yep, it's gone! We had been talking about how big boys don't need "binks" for a while now (and I was nervous about the possibility of some sleepless nights), but finally last week I took them away and told him that they had gone to the babies who need them. He whined a little bit on the first day, and we had one incident about 3 days in when he woke up from nap crying for it, but that's about it. I do notice that sometimes it seems to take him a little extra time to settle down into sleep, but I'm sure that as the days go on, he will learn to soothe himself to sleep quickly without it. Yay!

First night with no pacifier

5) Sitting in a BOOSTER! I ordered Luke a booster seat that came just this week. He was getting too big for his highchair and his legs and feet would often get stuck when getting in and out. Despite all of Luke's eating issues, he really, truly loved sitting in his highchair. However, he surprised me again when he very happily and easily transitioned to the booster. We made a big deal of it and even went to the store together to pick out some special place mats (his choices: a monkey face and a frog). He seems happy with his new spot at the family dinner table - and we love having him there. For the time being, the highchair went up into storage at my parents' - that way it is not an option to go back to for Luke, and it makes room in our house for the baby swing which will be back very shortly!

6) READING to us! Luke has several of his books memorized and now enjoys reading some of them to us. The one that he knows best and is his favorite right now is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle. Luke loved this book several months ago, but was reintroduced to it at school and now we read it nearly every day.

7) Using the POTTY. Okay, despite an effort over the weekend that Michael was out of town a few weeks back, Luke is not officially potty trained. I was hoping that we could get it done that weekend, but after a few days Luke decided that he was NOT going to cooperate. He ended up screaming, arching his back, and simply refusing to even sit on the potty. So, we are taking a break and will revisit again in the coming month or so. What I have noticed since our initial attempt is that he has the ability to be trained during the day and that he is starting to show some interest again (this morning in fact, he woke up and immediately came to get me so that I could help him use the potty). He also has his eye on a package of Thomas underwear that he knows we are going back to get once he is using the potty ... we'll keep you updated!

8) TALKING about everything, and in full and complete sentences. I know that over the past year I have made mention of Luke's increasing ability to converse, but now I feel that it has really hit a peak. I hear him say new things all the time - things that he didn't learn from me (which is a little strange, but I should get used to it). I love listening and talking with him - it's really amazing how much is in that brain of his!

9) Staying HEALTHY. Knock on wood, Luke has been pretty healthy for a long stretch now. He did get an ear infection back in September, but thanks to the tubes, did not suffer any from it. We had a 6-month re-check on his ears this month with the ENT specialist and he said both looked really good. Both eardrums healed nicely after the surgery. One tube (in the left ear that had the infection a few months ago) will not be in much longer, as it is very anterior, but the other is still in place. We just have to hope now that his anatomy has changed enough so that if his left ear is infected again this year, the fluid will be able to drain on its own.

10) SINGING songs. Luke can now sing, hum, and "la-la-la" a bunch of songs. It amazes us that he not only knows the melodies, but also nearly all of the words. Some of his favorite songs right now include: the ABCs, the Itsy Bitsy Spider, Let's Go Fly a Kite, I See the Moon, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Old Macdonald had a Farm (which he also sings when we go to McDonalds!). He also has informed me that he likes the song Bubbly by Colbie Caillat, and can identify it after just the first few notes ... "Ooh, Mommy, I like this song!"

A Big Boy Bed!

Since the video post of Luke climbing out of his bed, there were no more attempted escapes, so we decided just to wait it out (although the toddler bed conversion kit did arrive) and see how much more time we could get out of the crib .... until yesterday.

Yesterday morning, Luke made another successful attempt to escape from his crib. He seemed to consistently get out of one corner, which happened to be the corner closest to his dresser. The bureau has a larger, decorative (and sharp!) base, so we knew that if Luke escaped without us around to catch him, he could likely bump his head (or face) on the edge of that decorative base.

Aunt Kate suggested a genius idea called the crib tent, which also happens to be very highly rated in many of the sleep books I have. However, after doing some research on it yesterday, I found that 1) the standard one won't fit Luke's crib, 2) the deluxe one costs $70+, and 3), and probably most importantly, we didn't have one yesterday! Since this would buy us some time, I am keeping it as a potential if the big boy bed turns into a big boy disaster ....

SO, we bit the bullet and converted the crib to a "big boy bed" yesterday.

I did do some reading, so I was "prepared" for what this might entail. Luke "helped" Daddy put on the new rail, and he seemed very pleased with this new bed that he could climb in and out of himself.

Naptime went okay - I cheated and rocked him to sleep and then layed him down. He slept for about an hour (as opposed to the usual 2-3), and came out happily chatting away.

Bedtime was an entirely different story. We started the process at 7:30, Luke did NOT want to sleep in that bed. After much crying, about 20 returns to bed, several failed attempts to rock him to sleep, and one try where Mommy got in bed next to him, he finally passed out around 9:00 as I rubbed his back.

We held our breath all night ....

...AND, he made it until 8:00 this morning! I heard him stir a few times during the night, but he did not get back up, and was happy as a clam this morning when he proudly marched into our room.

He is currently taking his 2nd nap in the big boy bed, and we had no crying at all. So, all in all, a pretty good transition thus far.

I'm not putting that crib front away just yet, though!

Binkies are too accessible now, so Mommy will need to put them up during the day:

Linus seems to think that this bed is just right for him! Luckily, Luke is happy to share:

Finally asleep on night #1: