As she starts to fully embrace being TWO, Alice obliges our simple requests less and less these days. For example, she used to LOVE getting her picture taken and would consistently pause and give a big grin when we said "Say Cheese". Now she looks at the camera and turns her back but then wants to look at the blurry pictures on the screen. Last night at dinnershe gave us a big grin and told us it was her "Happy Face". Hope that means we will be able to ask for that from time to time and she will oblige.
Alice is also getting more and more independent. Twice yesterday she told me that she had to go potty. She got up, looked at me and said "I be right back, you stay here". Of course I followed her to the bathroom to help her and she got upset with me and insisted that I leave the room. She has completely filled her potty chart with stickers (successes) and has stopped asking for stickers when she goes so I don't think I am going to make another chart.
We took her crib down this weekend and she was very excited about the changes to her bedroom. We took the rocker out and put it in the boys' room and also moved all of her stuffed animals up from the playroom to make room for the diaper changing station in the playroom. She occasionally asks for a pacifier but when we remind her that they are all gone because she is a big girl, she moves on rather quickly.
Alice's new class has been a major hit! Every morning, she runs to the class and is so excited about all of the new stuff to do. It is very different and the kids have a lot of new responsibility and do a lot of solo work. In the morning, the kids are allowed to choose what they want to do for their afternoon 'free' time and then are expected to follow through with that choice. Every Friday the class has show and tell. I know she is way too young to really understand this but I am so excited about it for her. Last week was something starting with the letter A. A friend of mine whipped up a super adorable apron with the letter A on it. Alice seemed less than impressed but her teachers told me that she put it on and paraded it around circle time. Wish I could have seen that! This week the class is talking about the weather so we will have to think about something for Friday's SnT. I am so thrilled that she is so happy in her new class. It is so funny to her her huge BYE in the morning - sort of like what I expect to hear when she is a teenager. :)
Much to my delight, Alice has been singing to me a lot lately. This morning on the way to school, I got a verse of Rain, rain go away and a triple verse of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star (or as she sings it...Winkle Winkle Little Store). I just can't get over how stinking cute she is!
I finally feel like the house is ready for the boys to arrive. Their room is done - except for one final decoration that I need to complete. The new den has been furnished with the big things - pack and plays, swings, bouncy seats. I washed and put together all of the bottles, warmers, and other feeding stuff and set up a station on the kitchen counter. There are still a couple of things here and there that need to be done but I think we are ready.
And speaking of being ready...I am SO ready....I think. I am having such mixed feelings about all of this. I am really tired of being pregnant, tired of wearing the same 4 outfits (because not even the new maternity shirt I treated myself to last week fits over my enormous belly), tired of having to pee every 20 minutes, tired of being exhausted and not being able to really play with Alice. Having said all of that....I find myself feeling very conflicted. As tired as I am of being pregnant and as much as I want it to be over, I am sad that I will never be pregnant again and will never again have the opportunity to go through this amazing experience. The other, and at the moment, much larger concern is one of actually caring for TWO newborns! Am I really ready for that? In theory, I suppose.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Big Girl Bed
I mentioned in my last post that John and I were going to relax a bit on forcing Alice to stay in her bed and only enforce her staying in her room. Turns out we didn't even really need to do that. Last night, we did the typical routine. Dinner, Dora, bath, jammies, and stories. She sat on her bed while I sat on the floor next to her reading. She insisted on two books which I was more than happy to read as long as she was in the bed. As I read, she moved closer and closer to the edge of the bed but she followed my request to say in bed. I gave her a good night kiss and hug and told her again to say in bed or she would have to sleep in her crib. Then I left her room, closed the door over and sat down in the hallway - waiting for the inevitable peek of her little face through the crack in the door. I ended up sitting in the hallway for about an hour then went downstairs and listened on monitor for another 30 minutes - she did not get off the bed one single time! I was very surprised and very proud of her. She talked and sang to herself but finally drifted off about 8:30. John and I had to try really hard not to go look in on her but finally did an hour or so later. This is what we found. She was upside down but in bed and cuddled up with her puppy "boo". Ah, what a kid!!
Monday, March 21, 2011
In like a Lion, out like a Lamb....we hope!
March has been a really busy, hectic, stressful month but we have had a lot of fun and a few big changes too. John has been flying all over the country for job interviews and while nothing has really come to fruition yet, we are hoping for a couple of options that will allow us to stay in Huntsville. I have been going to the OB every Friday since the beginning of February. Every week I have been getting the "medical" thumbs up and have been able to see our little guys almost every week. As of this past Friday, Baby A is weighing in at 5 lbs, 3 ozs and Baby B is 4 lbs, 14 ozs. They are right on target for 34 weeks and things are looking good for me to stay working as long as I hope to (going to the office until April 1 and then working from home until the delivery). I finally managed to pin the doc down a little bit on a possible scheduling of their arrival. Since both boys are transverse (sideways), I will definitely have to have a c-section. I am not totally thrilled with that but the idea of scheduling it is over-riding my fear. So, the HOPE is that the surgery will be scheduled for April 11th or 12th. We would like for it to happen in the beginning of the week so Alice's schedule will not be disrupted too much. She will go to school during the day so there will be less time for her to wonder where Mommy is, plus, by the time the weekend comes, I should be home from the hospital. I know what is said about best laid plans but....I have to do something or I will go insane.
I wrote a few weeks ago about Alice wanting a mustache....well, I told my brother, Kevin, the story and a few days later Alice got some mail from Uncle Kevin and Cousin Nate. It was a real-human hair mustache. I, honestly, cannot say that I was the slightest bit surprised (if you know Kevin, I am sure you are not either. :) And yes, Kevin, sooner or later, you will get your pic of Alice in her mustache.) Anyway, while at the costume store, Nate spotted a blond beard that he just HAD to have. You see, this kid goes a little leprechaun crazy every March. This year he decided to dress up as a leprechaun and the beard was to be the perfect complement to his costume! (I, personally, think the missing teeth make the whole thing.) This kid is such a hoot!
A couple of weekends ago, Alice (and John and I) was invited to her classmate, Allison's, 2nd birthday party. The girls had lots of fun stalking a kitty cat and playing in the backyard. It was so great to be able to meet and get to know some new adult friends and to watch all the kids play. Alice had a couple mini-meltdowns when it came time to eat because she could not have cake first but was a pretty good girl for most of the day.
John and I decided it was time to put the boys' carseats into my car. Have to say that I had a mini-meltdown when I saw them all in. Seeing THREE little kiddie seats and coming to terms with the desperate need for a mini-van was just a little overwhelming. Thank goodness my belly will not be quite so large once the actual seats need to be in place or else I would not be able to fit behind the steering wheel!
This picture just cracks me up. John and I call this hairstyle "The Donald" (as in Donald Trump). Alice's hair is still so baby fine and curly but when she wakes up, the back looks like dreadlocks. In order to be able to run a comb through it, I have to soak it with detangler. This is what it looks like before it completely dries and the curls bounce back.
My girlfriends threw me a baby shower this past weekend. I had a great time and was shown, once again, how lucky I am to have such awesomely fantastic friends! They really went all out with the party and were kind enough to allow a lot of the focus to be on Alice - this was her "Big Girl" party. They even made up a basket of gifts just for her! She loved it, I loved it - it was just a great day!
And if all of this excitement was not enough... This weekend was the start to a lot of Big Girl changes for Alice. Today is her first day in her new class at school. She moves from Early Preschool (EP) to Preschool (P) which means being with some older kids (this class is age 2.5 to 4.5) and most importantly, she will get to play on the "big" playground! So this morning, she went in to her EP class for breakfast and then went to P for the rest of the morning and lunch. I just stopped by the school to see how she did and was told everything went great. She went to P willingly, ate a great lunch, used the potty, LOVED the playground, and then went willingly back to EP for nap. She will spend the rest of the day in EP. Tomorrow morning I will take her to EP and she will go to P around 9 and stay until after nap (or the rest of the day if she wants). Then on Wednesday, she will go to P in the morning and that is that!
John and I took full advantage of the school changes and big girl party this weekend to implement a few changes of our own around the house. We decided it was time to get rid of the pacifier and introduce the toddler bed. We were pretty firm in our decision about the pacy but were iffy about the toddler bed for a couple of reasons. She always has been very content to be in her crib and has not once tried to climb out. We also had to take into account that we will appreciate the fact that she is confined to the crib and is not able to be up and wandering around the upstairs - especially as we are trying to take care of the boys. We decided to set the bed up but tell her that she didn't have to sleep in it if she didn't want to. We really thought she would not be interested....boy, were we wrong!!! I made the bed up on Saturday morning while she and John were at the park and we showed it to her when they got home. She went crazy - she was SO excited about her big girl bed! Now, she has yet to actually SLEEP in her big girl bed. We tried nap time and bed time both Saturday and last night but she kept getting out and running around. At first she was really playing us. We would hear her up, start up the stairs to her room, only to hear her run back to the bed and jump in. We would go in and she would say something like "I just getting book, Mommy". After a few of those, she got a little more daring and would peek out the door or just open the door and run into our room. We gave her a number of tries but each sleep time ended with a very unhappy Alice in her crib. Tonight we are going to scale back a bit on forcing her to stay in bed and just enforce her staying in her room. We think that she needs a little time to explore and have fun with her new freedom...and if she falls asleep on the floor across the room, so be it.
Getting rid of the pacifier was the thing I was dreading. I envisioned it being a huge battle with lots of tears but she surprised us! Here and there, while John and I were telling her all about the new big girl things that were happening, we would slip into conversation that big girls don't use pacys anymore. She never once acknowledged or questioned what we were saying so we were stunned Friday night when she did not ask for a pacy. We thought it was a fluke but decided to run with it. Saturday morning she asked for one and we told her that they were all gone because she was a big girl and didn't need to use one anymore. She whimpered a bit and asked for it a few more times but that was pretty much it. I have hidden them for now (just in case) but plan on throwing them away in a day or so. I think all the excitement about the bed has distracted her from the need for her other bedtime comfort. Oh, the tricks we play on our kids.
All of this "growing up" is proving to be really good for Alice - at least in the very short time we have been dealing with it. I can't help but get myself a little emotional about it though....my baby girl, isn't a baby girl anymore! sniff, sniff
She did the sweetest thing this weekend. She and I were playing with her baby dolls (she has a set of twins) and I was telling her all about the things that she was going to be able to do to help me with her brothers. I told her that the babies would probably cry a lot and she could say shhhh to them and tell them not to cry. She took the dolls, and put them both face down on pillows, covered them with a blanket and knelt down next to them and said "Shh, don't cry Ben. Shh, don't cry Cooper." Just about melted my heart!
Oh, and one funny/cute thing. She is doing so well with the potty training and needs less and less distraction (reading books and singing songs) to go. She has, however, decided that she now needs to help me when I use the bathroom. As soon as I sit down, she starts singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to me and continues until I am finished. I think being serenaded while on the toilet is a decent trade off for not having any privacy. What do you think?
So, to tie back into the title of this blog post....here's hoping that since March started off and has continued to be busy and hectic, that it will end quietly and calmly with the right job offer for John and two little boys who stay in my belly until, at least, the first of April.
I wrote a few weeks ago about Alice wanting a mustache....well, I told my brother, Kevin, the story and a few days later Alice got some mail from Uncle Kevin and Cousin Nate. It was a real-human hair mustache. I, honestly, cannot say that I was the slightest bit surprised (if you know Kevin, I am sure you are not either. :) And yes, Kevin, sooner or later, you will get your pic of Alice in her mustache.) Anyway, while at the costume store, Nate spotted a blond beard that he just HAD to have. You see, this kid goes a little leprechaun crazy every March. This year he decided to dress up as a leprechaun and the beard was to be the perfect complement to his costume! (I, personally, think the missing teeth make the whole thing.) This kid is such a hoot!
 | ||
| Nate the Leprechaun. |
 |
| Allison and Alice stalking the Kitty |
 |
| Allison and Alice finally score some kitty-love |
 |
| Can someone say MINI-VAN?? |
 |
| "The Donald" |
 |
| It's official - Here are their names! Ben and Coop |
And if all of this excitement was not enough... This weekend was the start to a lot of Big Girl changes for Alice. Today is her first day in her new class at school. She moves from Early Preschool (EP) to Preschool (P) which means being with some older kids (this class is age 2.5 to 4.5) and most importantly, she will get to play on the "big" playground! So this morning, she went in to her EP class for breakfast and then went to P for the rest of the morning and lunch. I just stopped by the school to see how she did and was told everything went great. She went to P willingly, ate a great lunch, used the potty, LOVED the playground, and then went willingly back to EP for nap. She will spend the rest of the day in EP. Tomorrow morning I will take her to EP and she will go to P around 9 and stay until after nap (or the rest of the day if she wants). Then on Wednesday, she will go to P in the morning and that is that!
John and I took full advantage of the school changes and big girl party this weekend to implement a few changes of our own around the house. We decided it was time to get rid of the pacifier and introduce the toddler bed. We were pretty firm in our decision about the pacy but were iffy about the toddler bed for a couple of reasons. She always has been very content to be in her crib and has not once tried to climb out. We also had to take into account that we will appreciate the fact that she is confined to the crib and is not able to be up and wandering around the upstairs - especially as we are trying to take care of the boys. We decided to set the bed up but tell her that she didn't have to sleep in it if she didn't want to. We really thought she would not be interested....boy, were we wrong!!! I made the bed up on Saturday morning while she and John were at the park and we showed it to her when they got home. She went crazy - she was SO excited about her big girl bed! Now, she has yet to actually SLEEP in her big girl bed. We tried nap time and bed time both Saturday and last night but she kept getting out and running around. At first she was really playing us. We would hear her up, start up the stairs to her room, only to hear her run back to the bed and jump in. We would go in and she would say something like "I just getting book, Mommy". After a few of those, she got a little more daring and would peek out the door or just open the door and run into our room. We gave her a number of tries but each sleep time ended with a very unhappy Alice in her crib. Tonight we are going to scale back a bit on forcing her to stay in bed and just enforce her staying in her room. We think that she needs a little time to explore and have fun with her new freedom...and if she falls asleep on the floor across the room, so be it.
Getting rid of the pacifier was the thing I was dreading. I envisioned it being a huge battle with lots of tears but she surprised us! Here and there, while John and I were telling her all about the new big girl things that were happening, we would slip into conversation that big girls don't use pacys anymore. She never once acknowledged or questioned what we were saying so we were stunned Friday night when she did not ask for a pacy. We thought it was a fluke but decided to run with it. Saturday morning she asked for one and we told her that they were all gone because she was a big girl and didn't need to use one anymore. She whimpered a bit and asked for it a few more times but that was pretty much it. I have hidden them for now (just in case) but plan on throwing them away in a day or so. I think all the excitement about the bed has distracted her from the need for her other bedtime comfort. Oh, the tricks we play on our kids.
All of this "growing up" is proving to be really good for Alice - at least in the very short time we have been dealing with it. I can't help but get myself a little emotional about it though....my baby girl, isn't a baby girl anymore! sniff, sniff
She did the sweetest thing this weekend. She and I were playing with her baby dolls (she has a set of twins) and I was telling her all about the things that she was going to be able to do to help me with her brothers. I told her that the babies would probably cry a lot and she could say shhhh to them and tell them not to cry. She took the dolls, and put them both face down on pillows, covered them with a blanket and knelt down next to them and said "Shh, don't cry Ben. Shh, don't cry Cooper." Just about melted my heart!
Oh, and one funny/cute thing. She is doing so well with the potty training and needs less and less distraction (reading books and singing songs) to go. She has, however, decided that she now needs to help me when I use the bathroom. As soon as I sit down, she starts singing Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to me and continues until I am finished. I think being serenaded while on the toilet is a decent trade off for not having any privacy. What do you think?
So, to tie back into the title of this blog post....here's hoping that since March started off and has continued to be busy and hectic, that it will end quietly and calmly with the right job offer for John and two little boys who stay in my belly until, at least, the first of April.
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