The Latest

My poor baby!  Little Miss was up crying and crying with a stream of tiny tears rolling down her chubby red cheeks late, late Friday night, and I couldn’t figure out why!  Saturday night was a little better, but she still seemed off . . . of course, I thought this would be the weekend where we’d all catch up on sleep that was lost during the Great Transition to Beds of 2011 (GTB).  I was wrong.  One thing I have learned about our family is that when we do not get sleep, we get sick.  Everyone minus Typhoid Mary Harry (Hatch), has a cold.  So, I took Love to the doctor today while the rascals were at school to find out that she has her very first ear infection—and, in both ears.  Anna wanted to be with her mama all day, so it was a wild one for us.  I had scheduled for someone to help me each afternoon last week since I had anticipated chaos from the GTB, but today was my first day alone.  The boys were wired from school, but they did well going down for naps, and AK went down, too, but woke early.  She wants to be held, and be held upright (I am so thankful that I can still strap her to me and wear her around the house!).  I just hate seeing her so sad and crying so much!  I breaks my heart!  So far, two of us ladies are on antibiotics.  My prediction is that we’ll add at least one more little one to the ranks by the end of the week.  Stink.

{This picture was taken last week.  Oh, my love!  Sorry it’s dark—cell phone camera is to blame!}

{This was taken on Flashback Friday.  Those are my jammies from when I was a babe!  ha ha!}

We always joke that it takes a minimum of 12 steps to do anything around here.  Figuring out the new sleeping situation has taken at least that long!  I was trying to get both boys to nap in the same bed, but after realizing William was scheming, I decided to jump straight to putting him in the pack and play each day.  Several days, I’d leave their room and he would remind himself of the rule and say “No get out of bed, Mommy.” As soon as I would shut the door, he would say:  “Hudsey!  You come my bed?  I come your bed?  You come?  Okay.”   And then the thud of a 2 year old hopping down and the pitter patter of fat little fast feet across the floor!  When I would walk in the room, they would bury their heads—if they can’t see me, then surely I can’t see them!  Friday was our first day that naps went well.  Friday night was okay, but Saturday and Sunday nights were even better.  I, wrongly, always think that we need a system to get things to function well around here.  No system can contain the desires of three tiny people!  Regardless, we do have a new routine . . . which, I’m sure, will be ever changing, like everything else around in these parts!  We do a dance of taking the toys out of their room for naps and at night so they are not tempted to play, and then we go back in their room before we go to bed to put the toys in (so they can entertain themselves for a bit in the morning).  Tonight, when we went in their room, for the first time, we saw this . . . and it melted my heart:

I went to give Hudson a kiss and stood beside his bed for about 5 minutes trying to figure out where his head was . . . after patting the rear of his Brown Bear and smooshing his blankies, I realized he wasn’t there at all!  Hatch looked at me like I was crazy when I said I was going to move Hudson—but, it was either move him or have him kick William in the head before rocketing himself onto the floor.  It took all of my strength to move my sleeping Hudsey to his bed, and it took both Hatch and me about 27 minutes to find his lovely, which was conveniently buried under William’s blankies and locked between his knees.  Rascals!  I love that these boys love each other so much.  Dear Lord, please bless these babies with deep friendship and love for one another . . . always.

And, with that, a Good night!   

 

Favorites

Right now, we have a few favorite things:

Hudson’s favorite thing to “play” is “grocery store” . . . he gets a grocery bag, goes shopping (“Bye Mommy!”  Fortunately for me, he will add some of my items to his list!) fills his bag with his pretend food, brings it “home,” and begins to make things for us!

Both boys love to buckle themselves into their high chairs, and today W asked me to “buckle me out” (ie: unbuckle him) . . . so cute!

The boys have a favorite book that is called Let’s Eat (shocking, I know) and it is about Cookie Monster having a dinner party, going to the grocery, making the food, and eating.  My problem with it is that it is written in Cookie’s voice “Me like cookies,” which sounds shockingly like Hudson, but is not grammatically correct, so whoever is reading it has to edit it for our tiny audience! Thank you, Sesame Street!

William has always been into carrying around tiny things.  For the last 48 hours, he has been carrying around “tiny book.”  It goes everywhere with us—bed, table, car, potty, etc.  And, yes, there is a picture of Cookie Monster (fondly known as “Cookie” and previously known as “Tickle Monster”) with a Dump Truck of tiny cookies that are spilling all over the place.  Notice a theme?

Two weekends ago, we went to see one of Hatch’s company’s clients.  It was a BIG hit. I love this!

He just couldn’t help himself!

No one was interested in looking at the camera.  We were too excited to see so many BIG diggers and dumpers!  And, fortunately for the boys, Mommy got lost a few days after going here, and we ended up swinging back by—twice in one week!

Mommy wore green and yellow to match the tractor (bad move, Mommy). Love!

Anna’s favorite things right now include giggling uncontrollably at her brothers (usually when Hudson is doing something silly or disobedient—I believe I have my work cut out for me!), grabbing her chubby feet, eating lots and lots (like Hudson—today she had her first 8oz bottle, big girl!), and squawking and talking lots and lots (like William)!

Some of my favorite things are Anna’s giggles, Hudson’s spontaneous and wet smooches, William’s “big squeezes” (“uppy, mama!”) and the moment my hubs walks in the door each day (because he is both handsome and he comes to relieve me from the throes of the pre-dinner/bedtime witching hours).

And, because I know you are wondering . . . they napped yesterday and today and slept both nights BUT it took an hour for them to go down.  My “voice of God” approach may have left me voiceless (just kidding—I am sick and have NO voice!), and we are so tired.  Hatch SAT in their room tonight for an hour until they dozed off.  And, yes, when I went in to get them this morning, William had unzipped his jammies and we realized about 20 minutes later that he was not wearing a diaper.  He kept saying “Where it go, Mama?”  I said, “YOU TOOK YOUR DIAPER OFF, WILLIAM!  YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHEN YOU DO THAT!”  To his credit, he did have a “big tinkle” on the potty before bed tonight . . . but, STILL.  

 

Whoo!  These boys!

The New Normal (or not)

By no means have we reached the new normal . . . but, I think really, really hope we are on our way there.  Although, there are several things that I hope do not remain.  Normally, I do not see my boys until 8am (they are up, but they would play, sing, scream, etc. in their cribs until I was ready to get them).  Today, at 7:04, despite the doorknob locks, Hudson walked right on into the hallway and said “Hi Mommy!  I pooped!”  And, “Good Morning to you, too, Hudsey!”  That was approximately 56 minutes too early for me, and I think we felt it all morning long!  Around 9:30 this morning, William informed me that he wanted me to drive him home so he could take a nap.  Poor boy—sleeping happens at night!  I have been trying what Hatch calls “the voice of God” approach at naptime—I peer through the keyhole and say things like “Lay your head back down!”  “Get back in your bed!”  It is hilarious and fairly ineffective all at once!  Today, they did nap well, but it took almost 90 minutes (and William in the pack and play) to make it happen.  (And a note to those with children in cribs:  If you decide to put toys in your child’s room, I recommend putting some kind of large bin/bucket in there that can contain said toys so that you can move them out of the room in one fail swoop in order for your child to actually sleep.  Did I mention that I walked in yesterday right before Hudson tried to “help Daddy” by “pulling the bookshelf off the wall?”  That was a close one!)  Tonight was miserable—I think they napped too long.  So, here we go . . . two steps forward, one step back, or whatever that saying is!

This, though, is a sweet glimpse of the new normal:

I also love being able to rub their heads and kiss their cheeks without bowing over the rail of the crib.  And, today, both boys asked me to rock them.  Oh, how I love that.  I have a hunch that they won’t be asking me to do that when they are 12, so I’m happy to soak it all up now, if I can. 

And, in completely unrelated news, just so you know, Little Miss wore her mama’s pink ruffled overalls a few weeks ago.  She looked adorable!

I love the ruffled straps and the heart-shaped buttons.  Oh, so sweet!  I just love that Sugie held on to so many sweet things of mine for Anna Kathryn!

 

More to come . . . pray for sleep (seriously!) I’m pretty sure that once we get the hang of this Big Boy Bed stuff, we’ll never leave our house again.  Ahhh . . . ch-ch-ch-changes . . . .

JOY

OH MY HEART!

{and, yes, they slept last night. Praise the Lord!

Naps are still a challenge, but we'll take it one day at a time!}

The Damage

Tonight is their 3rd night in the big beds.  The first night went pretty well, last night someone (including Anna) was up every 60-90 minutes, and tonight we hope for sleep for all!  Yesterday, there were no naps. Instead, there was playing and jumping on the bed, and disciplining and crying, and no sleeping (including Anna).  This is how we found them—with tired eyes but unable to resist the sweet temptation to play!

Last night was bad, and this morning, they pulled Hatch out of church because Hudson was wailing in the nursery and saying he wanted to go home and go to sleep!!  Today, we gave them about 30 minutes to try to go to sleep at naps.  My hubs astutely discovered that if we get on our knees we can peer in the keyhole and see if William, at least, is in bed.   We need someone to take a picture of us looking in the keyhole . . . or, perhaps this is the reason they created video baby monitors?  I think we need one! Anyway, when peering in, I could see the boys were both in W’s bed, with lots of books.  It was cute, but still not sleeping.  So, we separated them—W went in the pack and play in our room.  Hudson stayed in their room (we worry he can climb out of the pnp and we know he can lift and throw the mattress).  We left him in his room for about 10  minutes, and peered in to find that he had taken all of the clothes out of the drawers, had unscrewed the lid to the diaper rash cream and had it all over his hands, there were diapers and wipes everywhere, and the lid was off william’s eye drop (h told us that he put it in his nose—awesome.)  So, I laid down in William’s bed and made H stay in his bed—we both napped.  Actually, everyone but Hatch napped!  I have high hopes for our future!  (note:  there is now a latch on their top dresser drawer!)

While we were putting the boys down for what we had hoped would be naps yesterday, we heard Little Love squawking at us.  And, no wonder!  We found her like this:

Since we are in a time of making drastic changes in terms of beds, we decided to say farewell to the bassinette, too.  I don’t even want to talk about it.  But, I did take a few little pictures of Chubbette in her too-small-bed:

Hatch and I were up late doing furniture rearranging and plotting and scheming about how to force our kids to sleep, so we are tired.  Very tired.  But, these sleepless children looked too cute to not try to take their pictures today:

I have no idea why they are trying to eat their toys (is Hudson eating a toy knife?  what is happening?)here.

 

We will not sleep, and we will not sit still either.  Or, look at the camera.

Please do try to tell this boy to nap.

Cheese!

 

Hey blue eyes!

Please pray for us.  We are trying to teach this person to SLEEP.  IN A BED.  LIKE A HUMAN BEING.

 

(Every time we look at the above picture we start laughing so hard.  The hair.  The shirt collar.  The sleeves.  The pants unbuttoned on the left side.  The expression.  This picture is so very Hudson!)

Please keep praying for Jesus to heal William’s hemangioma.  It is going down and looking good, but we want it to be GONE.  Please pray for wisdom for us, too, as we try to discern if we should change his eye drop or stay the course!

They had to play outside for a nanosecond while we were getting ready to get in the car . . . 

New shovels from the $1 bin at Target—oh, how perfect!

 

My sweet boys!

Oh, how I love these blonde little balls of energy!  My seasoned mom-friends who have twins and have survived putting them in beds tell me to push through . . . and that the newness will wear off . . . I do hope they will sleep more and sleep soon.  In the meantime, I am loving our new nighttime routine of snuggling on the big bed and reading a book or two together—they both want to be right up beside me.  It is so sweet. 

Happy Sleeping to you!

Big Boy Beds!

{I tried to post this last night, but the internet was out . . . so, we’ll try again!}

First, I must include this sweet picture from the park today.  Look at these adorable children!!  When we moved here and became friends with these families, not one of these little ones was born yet.  Isn’t that wild?  And, there are three sets of twins here . . . can you find them?  We are just so thankful for the friendships that the Lord has given us here—what a sweet thing to have so many kiddies in the same stage of life!  {In case you are worried about Baby Anna being the youngest, the little boy who is staring at her like she should not be in the picture will be welcoming his baby in July—he he!} 

When the boys got up from their nap, we started to get their room ready for the big transition.  Hudson knew he’d be working hard tonight, so he went ahead and pulled out his drill and {backwards} hard hat so he could get all warmed up and ready for the action!

Step 1:  Taking apart the cribs!

Daddy loves his helpers!  Slow and steady, slow and steady!

Baby Charlie was here to lend a hand, too, and we were so glad to have him!

When he wasn’t hard at work, Mr. Precious entertained Little Sis—he adores her!  It is so cute to watch!

William and Hudson were in charge of collecting all of the screws from their beds.

I love this picture.  Oh, I just love it!

Mommy helped, too!  Team work, as the boys say!

Sugie came to deliver waterproof mattress pads, which mommy neglected to buy . . . and, she was able to lend a hand with Baby Annabug Bananabug, too.  

Taking cribs apart is very hard work, you see.

You have to hold on to all of the tiny pieces, so it’s best to carry around your tool box.  {By the way, I received these tool boxes and aprons as a baby shower gift—best gift ever.  These boys LOVE them!}

 

Daddy and Bumps put the beds together while we were having dinner, which the boys were not  happy about.  They were able to help mommy get their new sheets on though, and that was exciting!  I mean, who wouldn’t want to sleep on diggers?

This was a trial run of the bed . . .

And, sweet dreams, my little loves!

When the boys got in bed to go to sleep, Hudson stretched out his arms and legs and just relaxed.  It was so cute!  Hatch and I both agreed that this big boy needed more space!

Although we had already said goodnight once, the boys called us back in their room because they needed something—we went.  William said “Why I in big bed, Daddy?  Where my crib?”  Hatch said:  “Because you are BIG, William.  You are a BIG BOY.”  And, that was it!  

Although, Hudson woke up about 10 minutes ago crying, and we could hear him saying “I sleep with WEEYUM!  I SLEEP WITH WEEYUM!”  Although their beds are up fairly high and there are rails all of the way down, I wouldn’t be surprised if we found them snuggled together one of these days!

Let the adventure begin!  {or, continue . . . }

{And, an update:  both boys woke around 5am, had a little party in their beds, and then fell back asleep until around 8ish.  We let them play in there while we got ready and right before we walked in the door, we heard Hudson say “I get down.  I get down!”  We walked in the room just as he had pushed his bedrail off the bed and bumped to the floor!  This is what he said:  “Me up dere.  Me get down.  Me okay, Me OKAY.”   So much for these two waiting in bed until mommy comes to get them out!}