No Sleep 'Til Bedtime

I mourn the loss of the afternoon nap. It was that peaceful interlude when I could get some work done, fold some laundry, have alone time with the baby, or God forbid, sit down with Mad Men or a magazine for a few minutes. Alas, those times are gone. A blissful, surprise double nap!

Nic dropped his nap sometime after Christmas. It had been a long time in the making—an hour spent playing in bed before actually falling asleep, the occasional no-nap day—but now it’s the norm, not the exception. He goes strong all day long. ALL DAY LONG.

It’s fun having a lot of one-on-one play time with him, but it’s been a real struggle getting my work done, and as you may have noticed, blogging has taken a backseat. I miss the Interwebs, but mama’s got clients to service. (My husband says that doesn’t sound right. You know what I mean, right?)

And I admit it: Sometimes I just have to put on the Lorax. When I do that, there’s a 90% chance he’ll fall asleep while watching it—I have the pee-stained couch to prove it. 

Learning Fun

I’ve been trying to find fun and stimulating activities to do with Elle when Reid is playing happily or sleeping. We’ve done a LOT of puzzles – I love the big floor puzzles and so does she. I actually picked up about half a dozen at Ross for half their Amazon price (always a deal seeker).

Speaking of frugality, I was in the Dollar Tree the other day picking up some bubbles and saw some preschool scissors. Elle has been really good about leaving my scissors alone but I do see her pining for them so I decided to get these so she would have her own. In Costco later that week I found a fun activity set on teaching your child the alphabet through activities like coloring, tracing, cutting and pasting. I decided to give it a go and it’s been a big hit. It always feels so rewarding knowing that I’m teaching her something. I have realized how much I take for granted things like cutting – it really is tricky teaching how to use scissors!

In addition to the Alphabet activity set I also picked up some Kuman first steps workbooks that offer more cutting, folding tracing, pasting and other activities for two year olds and up. At as low as $3 a pop these are pretty cheap for some good old learning fun. 

Bedtime with Two

I can't believe our little guy is three months old. Boy, how time flies. We started sleep training around 10 weeks. We are using the same method that we used with Elle and thus far it seems to be working. Here’s the gist: spread feedings at about by 4 hours so you end up having four feedings during the day at 8 a.m., Noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Baby can nap except in the last four hour stretch so he is super tired and hungry by bedtime. I tell ya that last four hour stretch is tough and I usually have a screaming baby around 7:30. No one ever said sleep training was fun though. While this style helps alleviate cry it out for the most part, there is some crying going on when you are trying to push the feedings and not sleeping.

So, we are down to one feeding at night and then he usually wakes at 7 a.m. The goal is to slowly decrease the amount he eats at night so that eventually he doesn’t wake up for it anymore. Of course I’m still nursing so that makes it a little challenging of knowing exactly how much he’s getting. I usually try to look at how many minutes he’s eating. He’s taking about two – three naps a day. One long one in the morning and one around 2 and then sometimes I’m bad and let him have a teensy cat nap at 6:30. Hey – I’ve got to make dinner. So we are in the conundrum that all parents face of bedtime with both kids. We’re currently putting them down around the same time and my hope is eventually we’ll combine story time for both kids and then put them in their beds. I’ll probably be putting them down by myself on at least half the weekday nights so any tips on how you’ve perfected bedtime with two?

Cute Clothes for Skinny Boys

Nic is SKINNY. At three years old, he weighs less than 10 pounds more than his 8-month-old brother. He's also tall. This makes finding pants for him very hard! Mostly, he wears the Gap jeans that have the internal, adjustable elastic. These work, but they don't have a lot of personality.Cute boys' clothes for Easter!

Enter Good Boy Friday. They make CUTE BOYS' CLOTHES. Yes, they do exist! I was fortunate enough for them to send me an outfit for Nic that was perfect for Easter--their monogramed button up shirt in chambray and Lou Pant in mint. I paired it with a pink bow tie and some desert boots, and it may be my favorite outfit on him to-date.

The best part about the outfit is the pants. Not only are they long and slim enough to look great on him, but the adjustable waist is external and easy to change. With only two buttons on the adjuster, I was skeptical that they'd go skinny enough, but they are perfect. And they don't look all bunched up around the waist, which is definitely a first. 

At $45 for the shirt and $55 for the pants, I'd definitely consider it special occaision wear. However, I just noticed that they have the pants on super sale for $25 in a few other colors (carrot!). I might just have to snatch some of those up.

Here's to boys' clothes with personality!

Darling outfit from Good Boy Friday.

On Your Third Birthday

Nic,

You turned three today. The day started blissfully with you singing Twinkle Twinkle to yourself in a dream while I gave baby an early morning bottle. You got to the end of the first verse and couldn’t remember how the others went, “Mama, how does the rest of Twinkle Twinkle go?” You asked this quietly, while still sleeping. But then your inquiry became louder and more urgent. I began to sing the verses back to you, but you couldn’t hear me through your dream. After a few minutes you woke up to find me in the chair next to your bed, holding your little brother. It was an early, but perfect way to start your third year. Birthday smile!

This has been quite a year. And I’ll be honest—it’s been tough. You sailed through potty training and even the introduction of your little brother, but we’ve had other struggles. Your physical exuberance is often more than your playmates can handle. I’ve heard many surprised, quiet gasps from other moms as you’ve pushed into their little ones, or worse. We’ve worked HARD—you, me, your dad, your teachers, the other parents at preschool—to help you to use your words instead of your body, and it has helped. I see the gentle soul that I know you are a bit more every day, and I can’t wait until that is the little boy who shows up to every birthday party and playdate. Until then, we’ll keep working and we’ll keep loving you just as much as we always have.

Watching you play is one of my great joys. Tonight, Daddy and I just couldn’t bear to put you to bed because you were so engrossed in pretend play with your new Legos. You were a “vetrapramarian”  fixing a broken turtle shell and then checking Daddy’s “heartbeep.” I heard you tell one of your Lego animals how proud you were of him for doing something and my heart swelled. I know that my responses to your aren’t always Positive-Discipline-perfect, but I do hope that the lasting feeling you get from our days together is how proud I am of the little man that you are.

I’m proud in the moments when I watch you pull your hands to your side at the sandbox and ask a little boy if he wants to play, when you choose the perfect, soft toy for Baby Z to snuggle, when you ask Daddy about the best part of his day at dinner, when you say that your favorite color is “beige” (seriously, what 3-year-old knows about beige?), when you eat carnitas. And I’m even proud in the not-so-perfect moments, when you are promising to be gentle next time or when you’re helping me clean up marker from the floor.

Every day we’re learning. You and me and Daddy too. We’re figuring out how this growing up thing works and I am so happy to be doing it with you.

My favorite quote these days is, “The days are long but the years are short.” I can’t think of anything else that sums up my feeling on your birthday better than this.

I love you eternally and unconditionally,

Mommy